BV 4832 
.M77 
Copy 1 



KM 



HBB5 



Mg Bo, 




James Mudge 




Class. 
Book. 



D 3 

*tA 77 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE LIFE OF LOVE 



BY 

JAMES MUDGE, D. D., 

Author of " Honey from Many Hives," " Growth 

in Holiness," "Faber," "Best of Browning," 

"China," Etc. 



«QLl)t<Bxtutt*tia Lobe" 



CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & PYE 
NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 



^©■a. 



^BVVs3x. 
'M77 



THE LI8HAKY @F 
OOWGRESS, 

Two Cones Heceiveb 

FEB. 1902 

CC***IGHT ENTRY 

CLASS fVXXa N* 

copy a 



COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY 
JENNINGS & PYE, 



EXPLANATION. 



& 



The soul, no less than the body, needs food. 
This little book aims to supply such nutriment. 
The life of love, which is another name for the 
only genuine Christian life, is here considered 
in a variety of aspects and relations. Important 
distinctions are emphasized, helpful illustra- 
tions supplied, practical suggestions offered, and 
stimulating thoughts presented. Condensed 
nourishment will be found here, needing much 
meditation to be mixed with it, in order to give 
the best results. The reader is earnestly re- 
quested to pray as he peruses these pages. If 
he obtain benefit from such perusal, the writer 
will be very glad to be made aware of it, and will 
receive encouragement therefrom to send out 
still other ventures of like nature. 

J. M. 
Webster, Mass. 

3 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Life op Love, 9 

A Command to Love, 22 

The Augmenting of Sympathy, - 24 

Loving with the Mind, 25 

Aggressive, but not Repulsive, - - - - 27 

How can We Love Everybody? 28 

" Great Thirst Land," 32 

Alone with God, .- 34 

Loving Our Enemies, - 36 

Be More Gentle, ------ 40 

Selfish Love, - --42 

The One Standard, 43 

Watches and Wills, ------ 44 

Seven Good Mottoes, ----- 46 

Two Kinds of Love, __-__- 52 

Two Kinds of Anger, 53 

Two Kinds of Fear, 55 

A Few Mistakes, 57 

5 



6 Contents. 

PAGE 

" All Rights Re served, " - 63 

Large-Type Christians, ------ 64 

Is Anxiety a Duty ?------ 66 

The Eye of the Master, 71 

Intentions Should be Intense, - - - - 72 

godfulness, 73 

Best Methods to Intensify the Spiritual Life, 74 

" Travel, Travel!" 80 

Stop the Leaks, -- 82 

Three Stages of Growth, - - ' - - - 84 

Three Snags, ------- 85 

Feasting on the Will of God, - - - - 86 

The Science of the Saints, - 87 

Fewer Faults, ------- 91 

Slaves, Hirelings, Sons, ----- 92 

Personal Appropriation, ----- 93 

A Slack Wire, -- 94 

Locking Up Spiritual Coin, ----- 96 

Signs of Spiritual Progress, - 98 

Walking Before God, - 105 

Wordless Communion, 106 

Loving Men, - 108 

Christian Eecreation, ----- 109 

Eeligious Wool-Gathering, 112 



Contents. 7 

PAGE 

Is the Line Clear ? - - - - - - 113 

Love to Jesus — How Much, ----- 114 

Holiness Takes Time, - 115 

Love Developed by Expression, - 116 

The Secret of Saintliness, - 117 

For His Name's Sake, ------ 120 

Crab-Tree Christians, - 121 

Four Ways with Trouble, ----- 122 

Bottle, Well, Eiver, - 123 

The Divine Presence, ------ 124 

Measure for Measure, - 125 

Practical Thoughts for Spiritual Minds, - - 126 



THE LIFE OF LOVE. 



It is common to think that a life all love 
is a perfect life. And, in a certain sense, this is 
true. Many passages of Scripture, many con- 
siderations of reason, give it sanction. If God 
is love, then surely the life of love is a godly life. 
There was nothing that Christ more constantly 
insisted on in his followers, or rated higher, than 
love. Both Paul and John also accorded it the 
first place, putting it plainly at the head of all 
qualities and acquirements. Without looking, 
then, too closely just now at the exact meaning 
of the word perfect, we may take it for granted 
that the ideal life, that for which we are su- 
premely to strive, is a life in which love is the 
leading element, the controlling principle. No 
one probably would dissent from this, or raise 
a controversy here. A life springing from, lead- 
ing to, and everywhere permeated with, love is 

9 



10 The Life oe Love. 

something most admirable, beautiful, and on 
all accounts to be desired. There is general 
agreement in this. But when we come to ask 
what such a life would be in its daily manifesta- 
tions, or when worked out in practical details, 
large differences of conception arise. Some would 
call a given life very deficient in love, while oth- 
ers would find in it no manner of fault. A few 
of the mistakes most frequently made may be 
studied with profit. 

1. It is a mistake to think that love is synony- 
mous with softness, gentleness, graciousness, mild- 
ness, meekness, tenderness, and, in general, the 
especially feminine qualities. Love is always por- 
trayed by painters and orators as a woman. 
Women are considered as particularly qualified 
for and dedicated to love. A sharp line is drawn 
between justice or righteousness and love or kind- 
ness. Anything hard, stern, severe, strong, 
strenuous, insistent, involving a firm will and 
measures likely to give pain — anything specific- 
ally masculine — is not considered quite compat- 
ible with love. Love is supposed to be all smiles 
and sunshine, ever acquiescent and complacent. 
Is not this the usual idea, the popular 



The Life of Love. 11 

thought? It would seem so. But it can not be 
a correct conception — not if a life of love is even 
to approach the perfect life. It appears to us 
true that a breast in which there is nothing but 
love can flame with anger, and thunder with 
wrath, and cherish deep hatred, and that these 
things — love and hate — are in no way irreconcil- 
able. On the contrary, love necessarily implies 
hate. Hate of the evil is included in love for 
the good. It is not of an indiscriminating, undis- 
tinguishing love that we speak — a love helpless, 
unguided, going out toward everything and every- 
body alike, making no difference, mechanically 
poured forth. ISTo, indeed. The purest specimens 
of love that we know are not at all of this sort. 

God is all love; but he punishes the sinner, 
and hates sin. The severe and harsh aspects of 
nature are from him, as well as the smiling ones. 
The tornado, the earthquake, the volcano, the 
famine, the pestilence, the desert, the glacier, 
the storm-tossed ocean, are his no less than the 
verdant mead, the fertile plain, the fruitful har- 
vest. The laws of retribution, pitiless, remorse- 
less, exacting; the laws which proclaim that what- 
soever a man soweth thai shall he also reap, with- 



12 The Life of Loye. 

out the least variation or exception; the laws that 
visit .every violation with penalty, whether that 
violation be from ignorance and weakness, or 
not, — these are from God. And they assuredly 
show the kind of love that God has — a love that 
is anything but indiscriminate softness and gen- 
eral gush. 

Christ was all love when he lashed the Phari- 
sees, and declared the inexorable nature of the 
conditions of salvation; when he looked round 
upon his enemies with anger, prophesied their 
destruction, and warned the people against their 
wickedness; when he cursed the fig-tree, and up- 
braided Capernaum, and pronounced the doom 
of Jerusalem; when he called Herod a fox, and 
characterized certain classes of men as dogs and 
wolves and swine, and rebuked those who in- 
sulted him. In other words, the Lord Jesus 
Christ was masculine as well as feminine. He 
had to be, or he could not have been a perfect 
man, could not have done the work he came to 
do, or been the example which he was to the race. 

The model parent, who is all love for his 
children, never thinks, unless he be a natural 
fool, that he is to exercise no restraint upon 



The Life of Love. 13 

them; that he is to let them have their way al- 
ways because they want it, and it is, for the time, 
pleasanter. ISTo; he frowns as well as smiles; 
he chastises as well as caresses ; he refuses as well 
as assents, — all from the same impulse of true 
parental love and deep regard for their best in- 
terests. 

Everybody, then, admits, when their atten- 
tion is closely called to it, that love must at 
times be severe and stern, must do things that 
are very disagreeable to those who are the ob- 
jects of its displeasure. And there is a prac- 
tical conclusion from this fact which has an im- 
portant bearing, both on our judgments of other 
people and our reception of their judgments. 
They whose plans we cross, whose feelings we 
hurt, whose conduct we criticise or denounce, 
will not be especially impressed with our love. 
They will not call it love, but something very 
different. They will storm and revile, and im- 
pute motives, and scoff, and sneer. The best 
of men have been thus ill-treated. Christ's love 
was not at all appreciated by the Sadducees and 
Pharisees, the lawyers and scribes. God's love 
is not understood by the sinner. Parental love 



14 The Life oe Love. 

is not recognized at the time by the disobedient, 
willful son. It is the same in society and the 
Church. It is an idle dream to expect all men 
to speak well of us, however good we are. The 
very fact that we are good makes the evil dis- 
like us. Saints are appreciated much better after 
they are dead than when they are alive. In life, 
in the midst of the conflicts which the carrying 
out of their plans provokes, they have many 
unpleasant names flung at them, many rude jokes 
made about them. But God's favor is not regu- 
lated by a majority vote; and a life over which 
all heaven will one day resound with congratu- 
lations may have been one that here was very 
lonely. 

This, then, is the first caution to be observed, 
if we would form a correct conception concern- 
ing the life of love : Do not rule out the mascu- 
line element; do not make it impossible for men 
in responsible positions, with authority to exer- 
cise and decisions to render that will run counter 
to the desires and preferences of many — in a 
word, for the leaders in affairs — do not make it 
impossible for such to be the best sort of Chris- 
tians. Honor those who, in these times of vote- 



The Life of Loye. 15 

seeking and thoughtless good-nature, are sternly 
faithful to duty and the larger good. Our civili- 
zation needs them terribly. Do not mark them 
down in the scale of being. Do not so define 
love as to shut them out, and restrict it to the 
nonentities and ciphers. There can be no more 
serious error. Love pertains to the strong and 
the great, to those best fitted to be supreme in 
the councils and actions of men. We look for 
the time when the rulers of nations, kings and 
presidents and governors and judges, shall be 
filled with love divine. It would be wrong so to 
think of love as to make that impossible. 

2. Another mistake is to suppose that much 
love implies much light, wisdom, knowledge — 
that love will necessarily keep people from er- 
rors in practice; that it will secure good judg- 
ment at all times, acquaintance with human na- 
ture, tact, skill in getting along with those 
around us — success. It will not do this. Love 
makes the intention good; but something more 
than this is needed to bring about results. With 
the best intentions in the world, if we are ig- 
norant of the best way of going to work, or if 
our materials are poor, we can not do a good 



16 The Life oe Loye. 

job. If we have had no training in carpentry, 
all the love imaginable will not enable us to con- 
struct a serviceable piece of furniture. Love 
has its reward, and knowledge has its reward; 
and they are very different. Comply with the 
law of good work, and good work surely follows. 
In default of that compliance, no amount of 
right motive will save us from failure. The mo- 
tive keeps one innocent of blame; but compli- 
ance with conditions is the only thing to produce 
results. The absolutely best course to take in 
a given matter may be hidden from us, though 
we do our utmost to find it. We can see after- 
wards where we blundered, although our love 
was perfect all the time. We were not even 
thoughtless. We tried hard, and did all we could; 
yet we were harmful where we meant to be use- 
ful; we hindered where we intended -to help. We 
make mistakes, all of us, in the management of 
our business, our families, our Churches. We 
feel no remorse about it, though we are grieved; 
no remorse, because we did what we really 
thought was right at the time. We have not 
fallen into sin, but into error; that is, into mis- 
fortune. If there had been lack of love, we 



The Life of Loye. 17 

should have sinned; but for unavoidable lack 
of light we can only be sorry, we are not con- 
demned. 

This defect of judgment or knowledge is much 
greater in some than in others. Where it is at 
all glaring, or where it particularly touches us, 
our admiration of the character of the persons 
concerned will inevitably be affected, and we 
shall find it difficult to admit that they are su- 
premely Christlike, or to consider, perhaps, that 
they even lead the life of love. Our annoyance 
at their blunders, our impatience with their con- 
stant failure in efficiency and their hindrance to 
the work which they are trying to help, so de- 
tracts from our respect for them that we can 
hardly give them proper credit for what excel- 
lence they have. "They, all love!" we say; "they, 
perfect Christians; they, to be admired as ideal 
saints! Perish the thought!" We do not want 
to be like them; we can hardly help despising 
them. And the world in general does despise 
them. "Good?" they say; "these people? Yes, 
perhaps so; but good for nothing! The Lord de- 
liver us from such goodness !" That is what most 
would say, because they do not discriminate be- 
2 



18 The Life of Loye. 

tween love and lights between good intentions 
and good results, between blamelessness of pur- 
pose and consummate ideal character. 

So here again is call for caution. We must 
not expect our love, however full and perfect, 
to be fully appreciated by those around us. Not 
only by those whom we conscientiously oppose, 
but by those whom we unwittingly offend 
through our stupid blunders and innocent er- 
rors, we shall be blamed and discredited. Love 
will not get its due meed of merit, because of 
its failures in wisdom and knowledge, not less 
than because of the necessity it is under to fight 
the evil in the world. An immature, undeveloped 
character, with a good deal of ignorance and 
childishness about it, may be all love in a certain 
sense, and perhaps is all it ought to be for the 
time being, considering how little opportunity it 
has had to grow, but it is not all we hope it 
will be in due season; nor is it all we ought 
to aim at in order to make ourselves perfectly 
acceptable to God and useful to men. 

3. Still, again, it is a mistake to suppose 
that love will remove all differences of tem- 
perament, all constitutional defects, all physical 



The Liee of Loye. 19 

ailments., all nervous disorders, all the effects of 
hysterical and dyspeptic diseases. It will not 
make people over after one pattern. Many re- 
ally seem to expect this. They set their mind 
on some exceptionally-constituted person, most 
harmoniously put together, with all natural 
graces and gifts, extremely amiable in disposition, 
blessed with good health and perfect tact, serene, 
reposeful, cheerful, unselfish, obliging; and they 
expect everybody who reaches a high state of 
grace, or professes so to do, to become instantly 
just like that person. It is an unreasonable ex- 
pectation. The great lines of our natural dis- 
position will never be wiped out; never, in this 
world or the next. Peter will not become John, 
nor Paul, nor Thomas, no matter how long he 
lives, no matter how much love he attains or ab- 
sorbs; and those who are particularly fond of 
Paul or John will never like Peter quite so well. 
It is not possible, in the nature of things, that 
they should. These constitutional affinities 
which make us different from one another com- 
pose a large part of our humanity. They are 
indelibly inwrought for wise purposes. It would 
not be at all well to have everybody alike. The 



20 The Life oe Love. 

work of the world would not be so efficiently 
done. These differences belong to the Divine 
plan, and serve many a good end. We can not 
be the same in body, or perfect in body, as a 
rule; and the body necessarily affects the mind. 
Our state of health is an important factor in 
our character and in the outcome of our life. 
The sanguine temperament will be certain to 
comport itself otherwise than one which is 
phlegmatic or melancholy. Love will act differ- 
ently through these different temperaments, will 
have different external manifestations, will not 
appear to be the same thing; perhaps we may 
say, will not be the same thing. 

And most people will not discriminate. It 
is idle to expect it. They will ascribe to a defect 
of love what is not of necessity such, or is sim- 
ply love exhibiting itself in a way natural or 
inevitable to that temperament. The water may 
be equally pure, though the channel or pipe 
through which it flows may give it a peculiar 
flavor. This opens an intricate and complicated 
subject, which can not here be fully followed 
out. But it serves to show how difficult it is 
for us to make proper estimate, either of our- 



The Life op Love. 21 

selves or of other people, as to whether we are 
all love or not; in other words, as to whether 
certain things which look like defects are blame- 
worthy or not, whether they come because we do 
not love enough, or because of some wholly inno- 
cent natural trait. 

Because others do not consider us full of 
love is no sufficient reason why we may not 
really, in God's sight, be thus full. And when 
others do consider us thus, they may easily be 
mistaken. People may estimate us too high, as 
well as too low; may ascribe that to virtue which 
is only natural excellence, having no merit, and 
vice versa. 

And our own estimate of ourselves is as apt 
to be mistaken as that of other folks. There is 
no way to tell infallibly just where we are in the 
scale of goodness. What then? This fact, that 
we can not certainly tell our exact position, 
should check or modify the positiveness and defi- 
niteness of our professions; but it need not alter 
the earnestness with which we strive to get on. 
Not at all. It is our duty to grow in love as 
rapidly as possible, to possess and be possessed 
by it as completely as is within our reach. To 



22 The Life of Loye. 

grow in love, this is our great business. It is 
what Paul prays for with respect to his Philippian 
converts (i, 9), "that your love may abound yet 
more and more," or "grow yet stronger and 
stronger;" and it is what he thanks God for 
in regard to his Thessalonian friends, to whom 
he says (2 Thess. i, 3), "Tour love is continually 
increasing." So may it be with us all ! 



A COMMAND TO LOVE. 

Some stumble over the fact that God com- 
mands the love of his creatures, love being a 
thing not subject to compulsion. Love, it is 
well said, must come freely, or it is worthless. 
How, then, can it be a matter of command? — 
"Thou shalt love." 

The explanation is this: God is so far above 
us that, without the authorization of a positive 
command, we should not feel that we had the 
right to give him our affections. It is his place 
to assure us that we may love him by issuing a 
royal mandate requiring it. A monarch is re- 
garded as conferring a favor upon his subject 



The Life of Love. 23 

by coming to visit him. The invitation must 
proceed from above, not from beneath. 

The wooing of Queen Victoria and Prince 
Albert of Coburg had to be conducted in a dif- 
ferent way from that of ordinary people who 
meet on a level. The social position of the 
Queen was so much superior to that of the Prince 
that the latter could not offer the lady his hand, 
as is usual with lovers. She had to make the 
proposition, and she managed it with much skill, 
as well as delicacy. It was a bestowment of 
highest favor on Prince Albert when she, in a 
certain sense, commanded his love. 

So, when God stoops to enter the poor dwell- 
ing of our hearts, and even proposes a covenant 
of marriage with us, he is bestowing a most 
princely gift which may well take the form of 
an order. It is for him to make the first ad- 
vances, and indicate his royal pleasure. It is 
for us most cordially to respond, wondering the 
while what he can see in us that should make us 
the recipients of his bounty, but gladly accept- 
ing the glorious privilege of becoming closely 
united to him. 



24 The Life or Love. 



THE AUGMENTING OF SYMPATHY. 

There are few sounder pieces of counsel than 
that given by Sir Arthur Helps in regard to the 
difficult duty of being sincere and considerate at 
the same time, or of acting both truly and 
kindly. He says that it is better to enlarge our 
sympathy so that more things and people are 
pleasant to us, rather than to increase the civil 
and conventional part of our nature so that we 
are able to do more scheming with greater skill. 
Who can doubt that this is indeed the right way 
out of the trouble ? If we but extend and deepen 
our sympathies, the prejudices which have clung 
to us will fall away, our uncharitableness will 
take its departure, we shall understand folks 
much better, and there will be no necessity for 
pretending to like them. The enlargement of 
knowledge helps to enlarge sympathy. So does 
a deepened sense of our own infirmities and 
failures. 

"The King of Love my Shepherd is, 
Whose goodness faileth never; 
I nothing lack if I am his 
And he is mine forever." 



The Life oe Love. 25 



LOVING WITH THE MIND. 

It seems very easy for many people to for- 
get that we are commanded to love God, not 
only with all the heart, but with all the mind. 
They imagine that they will have gained a per- 
fect character, will have become altogether 
Christlike, if their heart — that is, their inten- 
tion — is pure; if their will to do right is good; 
if their affections are supremely centered on God. 
It is a mistake which has wrought great harm, 
brought disrepute on an important doctrine, led 
people to make professions which their behavior 
has belied, and produced discouragement, failure, 
and loss. 

The attainment of morally perfect conduct, 
flawless beauty of character, loveliness of life, 
requires much study and very considerable 
knowledge. Christ alone is the true standard 
below which we can not rest completely con- 
tent. He perfectly exemplified the virtues which, 
taken together, constitute Christianity. It is a 
very important part of our business to find out 
by close application of mind what these virtues 



26 The Life of Love. 

include when practically applied and minutely 
carried out in our daily life. If we are babes 
in this knowledge, our lives will be far from 
edifying; we shall alienate those we wish to win, 
disgust those we desire to attract, and be any- 
thing but true representatives of Jesus. Dili- 
gent use of our understanding on these prob- 
lems of behavior is largely called for, that we 
may be less and less disagreeable to those around 
us, less and less faulty in our deportment, 
more and more divine in our doings. Only in 
this way will our actions increasingly conform 
to the unchangeable law of the Lord, and we be 
increasingly useful to man, increasingly satisfac- 
tory to God. Thus shall we more and more con- 
form our conduct to an ever-enlarging concep- 
tion of what it means to be entirely good. Thus 
shall we get nearer and nearer to the ideal 
Christian. 

"Trust to the Lord to hide thee, 
Wait on the Lord to guide thee, 
So shall no ill betide thee, 

Day by day. 
Rise with his fear before thee, 
Tell of the love he bore thee, 
Sleep with his shadow o'er thee, 

Day by day." 



The Life of Loye. 2? 



AGGKESSIVE, BUT NOT KEPTTLSIVE. 

Pew things are more worthy of close study 
than the question, How can we war, and yet 
be winsome ? How can we be intense in our love 
for Jesus, and yet maintain thoroughly cordial 
and sympathetic relations with those who are 
not his friends? How can we be loyal to the 
truth, and yet loving to neglecters or opponents 
of the truth? How can we feel and show due 
appreciation for the good there is in sinful peo- 
ple, without in any way condoning their sins 
or giving them encouragement in their vain ex- 
cuses ? 

A very delicate and difficult line of conduct 
is here hinted at, requiring much tact. Few are 
equal to such straight walking. Nearly all lean 
unduly to one side or the other. There is either 
some indifference to the right, some laxity as to 
principle, or there is a failure in charity, a 
touch of Pharisaism. Blessed is he who has the 
wisdom to strike the golden mean, or is so com- 
prehensive in his make-up as to include a full 
and equal development of these opposite quali- 



28 The Life of Loye. 

ties. We know of nothing better to recommend 
for progress in this direction than a study of the 
mind of the Master, the one perfect Model. 



HOW CAN WE LOVE EVEEYBODY? 

What does perfect love demand with refer- 
ence to our neighbors? It is a question re- 
quiring careful consideration, for it is quite 
as easy to put the standard too high as it is 
to put it too low. We think it well to remove 
some misapprehensions by showing what the 
command does not mean. It is of great im- 
portance that men should be brought to believe 
in the practicability of the duty, and saved from 
looking at is as mere visionary moonshine, out of 
the question considered as a working rule of 
life in the midst of affairs. 

1. Loving everybody does not mean that we 
are to love everybody in the same way. There 
are different kinds of love. Besides maternal or 
instinctive love, there is the love of compla- 
cency or approval and the love of benevolence 
or good will and compassion. This latter goes 



The Life of Love. 29 

out toward all men, with little or no regard to 
their character. It is possible for us to feel 
and show the utmost kindness towards a man 
in whose conduct we take no pleasure. Moved 
by pity for his wretchedness, we put forth the 
most strenuous exertions for his help. Our love 
for him leads us not to approve, but to reprove; 
yet it leads us also to do our best to make him 
such as we can approve. 

2. Loving everybody does not mean that we 
are to love everybody to the same extent. There 
are different degrees of love in each kind, all 
proper and right. There are inner and outer 
circles of friendship. There must be; Jesus had 
them among his disciples. So, too, in regard 
to our benevolence. We are not obliged to do 
good to all alike. The apostle plainly recognizes 
this when he says, "Let us do good unto all men, 
especially unto them who are of the household 
of faith ;" that is, to those who have special claims 
upon us, or who have shown special worthiness. 

3. Loving everybody does not mean perpetual 
poverty on our part; does not mean that it is 
our duty to share our goods equally with those 
who have less. We can love people sincerely 



30 The Life of Loye. 

without feeling that it is our business to raise 
them to precisely the same level of comfort that 
we have; or, when that is impossible, feeling 
compelled to descend to the same level of dis- 
comfort that they have. It would plainly be most 
calamitous to have all good men reduced to pov- 
erty, and have only wicked men left in posses- 
sion of property. Christianity is not communism, 
nor mendicant monkery. 

4. Loving everybody does not mean, under all 
circumstances, peace; that is to say, it does not 
imply the obliteration of conscience, the aban- 
donment of principle, and the renunciation of 
right. Very carefully put is the apostolical in- 
junction on this head : "If it be possible, as much 
as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." It 
is not always possible, and it does not always 
lie with us to decide the question. "First pure, 
then peaceable," is the rule that must be followed. 
And he who regards purity, or the discharge of 
his obligation to God, as coming first, will fre- 
quently find that contention, not peace, comes 
next. Spiritless acquiescence in the dominion of 
wrong is never right. It is not peace, but pol- 
troonery. It is not love, but cowardice. When 



The Life oe Love. 31 

men would force us to do wrong, peace is sin. 
When men in our presence are wronging others, 
peace is base. And sometimes, when men are 
wronging us, it is our duty, for the sake of oth- 
ers, for the protection of the community, quite 
as much as for our sake, to give battle, and to 
fight hard. Yet we may be full of love all the 
time. 

5. Loving everybody does not mean that we 
are always to forget self. That would be to 
make love a blind enthusiasm. It would be to 
use up our powers heedlessly, foolishly, at hap- 
hazard, in ill-adjusted service. Some care of 
self is necessary for the largest, truest, and really 
noblest self-sacrifice. A man who is using his 
whole life in labor for others, must, for the sake 
of those others, look after his own health, and 
take proper recreation. A doctor or surgeon 
often has to postpone a particular service, how- 
ever important, in favor of the general service- 
ableness of his life in the long run. To have 
some heed to one's self, refusing to incur need- 
less risks, or to take on burdens too great for 
one's strength, is no evidence that one does not 
love one's work or the people worked for. 



32 The Life of Love. 

These limitations, we believe, good sense and 
reason demand. They clear the ground for a 
more positive statement of what loving every- 
body really includes and implies. 



"GREAT THIRST LAND." 

Theee is a book with the above title, de- 
scribing one of the waterless regions of the 
world — North Australia, we think. But the name 
is one closely applicable to the hearts of some 
Christian believers. Would there were more! 
For it is only they who greatly thirst that shall 
be largely filled. Most true it is that "the lack 
of desire is the ill of all ills," since God loves 
to be longed for; and without such longing on 
our part, to correspond with his longing for us, 
there can not be that divine union which shall 
make us one with him. 

We must wander in the Thirst Land before 
we can reside in the Beulah Land. How few 
there are that are all on flame with eagerness to 
know Him completely; that covet more the dear 
sight of his marvelous face than anything else 



The Life of Loye. 33 

in the wide world; that are determined at what- 
ever cost to gain the largest possible measure of 
the grace of God! The promises of God, rich 
as they are, ought to be fully matched by our 
aspirations. "We ought to resolve to sound the 
utmost depths of the mine of wealth opened to 
us in the words of Christ and his apostles. We 
should count all but loss for the excellence of 
the knowledge of Jesus. We disparage him be- 
yond expression when we rest satisfied with what 
we have thus far known of him. There is a 
whole heaven of bliss waiting to be revealed to 
us even now in the wonderful love of our Lord, 
and we are comparatively, if not wholly, indif- 
ferent to the glorious fact. Far too easily con- 
tent are we with present attainment. What will 
make us thirst more ? Thought will do it ; prayer 
will do it; and much converse with those who 
have most experienced the bliss there is in Jesus 
will gloriously do it. 

"It is not the wall of stone without 

That makes the building small or great, 
But the soul's light shining round about, 
And the faith that overcometh doubt, 
And the love that stronger is than hate." 

—Longfellow. 

3 



34 The Life of Love. 



ALONE WITH GOD. 

If statistics could be collected as to the 
amount of time spent by the Church in its 
closet, we think the figures would be extremely 
startling. There would be no further cause for 
wonder at the prevalent lukewarmness and lax- 
ity. Neglect of closet duties may indeed be 
counted effect as well as cause of religious 
apathy; but we are disposed to place them rather 
in the latter class, because they are so plain an 
obligation and so simple a prescription. He 
who thrusts them aside puts away the easiest, 
clearest method of spiritual growth. It is some- 
thing within the reach of all; not that in every 
case it can be compassed without effort, but a 
way can always be found where the will exists. 
It has the most direct and immediate connection 
with the result desired, and never fails, when 
properly pursued, to bring it to pass. Nothing 
can take its place. There is no short cut to 
the heights of piety. 

A few revival-meetings, an hour or two of 
spasmodic ecstasy, are not sufficient for attain- 



The Life of Love. 35 

ing the delightful realms of religious tranquillity 
and power. It is far safer to depend on quiet, 
systematic gains. It is thus the most substan- 
tial, serviceable, oaklike piety is built up. Daniel, 
in his chamber, praying, is the essential pre- 
cursor to Daniel unterrified before the lions. We 
read of him that "he kneeled upon his knees 
three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks 
before his God." Similarly the psalmist says, 
"Evening, morning, and at noon will I pray and 
cry aloud." Who will say that this is not a rea- 
sonable and wholesome custom? Yet it would 
be dangerous to ask in any Christian assembly, 
how many of those present follow it. It would 
be found, we fear, that nearly all suffered the 
whole day of busy cares to intervene between 
the hurried, half-digested mouthfuls of spiritual 
nourishment afforded in the crowded morning 
and the tired evening. Among the many lines 
of reform pressing for attention in the habits 
of the members of our Churches, it seems to us 
that scarce any is more indispensable than re- 
form in attention to these powerful helps to 
growth in grace which cluster around the still 
hour. More time must be spent alone with God, 



36 The Life oe Love. 

or we shall not see what we so much desire, 
either in our own religious uplifting or outward 
results upon the world. 

LOVING OUK ENEMIES. 

What does it mean? How are we to love 
those least lovable, those who may fairly be 
counted as at enmity with us, plotting to harm us ? 

In the first place, love includes doing them 
good just so far as we can find or make oppor- 
tunity, and just so far as we have time or 
strength or money that we feel at liberty to 
use in this direction. If our enemy hunger, 
we are to feed him, the apostle says; and we 
may surely extend the same principle to all 
other needs of his that it is in our power to 
supply. We must do our very best in every way 
to show him that we bear no ill-will, and that 
we have only kindness toward him in our heart. 
And the very process of acting it out will in- 
crease it within. The more we do for a person, 
the deeper interest we take in him. Hence, 
oftentimes to ask a kindness from one who has 
been distant or unfriendly, if we do not make 



The Life of Loye. 37 

too large a demand, will draw out his love de- 
cidedly more than doing him a good turn. But 
it is well to do both. Give and take. Affect 
not the proud superiority which only gives, nor 
be the cringing, burdensome dependent who only 
takes. Pleasant, equal intercourse is what pro- 
duces and cements and repairs friendship — inter- 
course of deed, of thought, and of word. 

Not only doing pleasant things for our ene- 
mies, but also speaking pleasant things of and 
to them, is included in genuine love. We are 
likely to have more opportunities to practice this 
latter than the former. He who hates us may 
be in want of nothing that we can supply; but 
chances to speak about him will be many. And 
we must see to it that we say all the good about 
him we honestly can, and when we can say no 
good, we must say nothing. Loving a person 
means excusing the motive when it is impossible 
to excuse or defend the act; it means finding 
an explanation that will be to his credit, if such 
a thing is within the bounds of possibility; it 
implies a holy ingenuity in kind, benignant con- 
structions of what seems, on the surface, to be 
wrong; it implies a perverse incredulity as to 



38 The Life of Love. 

the evil thing which is charged having ever really 
happened; it implies a resolute fixing of the 
thought on the good qualities of others and a 
firm determination not to speak ill or think ill 
of them, unless plain duty demands it. And we 
are to speak pleasantly, not only of, but to him 
who has done us a wrong, if he gives us a chance. 
Often he will. Half the time he keeps up the 
antagonism because he thinks we are harboring 
hardness; and, when he finds we are not, he is 
prepared to meet us half way. It is hard work 
for one to quarrel alone. And it is our business 
to make it as plain as words and ways can make 
it, that, so far as we are concerned, only love 
reigns. 

There is another thing. Jesus divided the 
matter with much exactness when he said, by 
way of explaining what was embraced in love 
to enemies, "Do good to them that hate you, 
bless them that curse you, and pray for those 
that despitefully use you." Those we can not 
pray for we fail to love. We must intercede for 
them as Job did for his sons; as Stephen, with 
dying breath, did for his murderers, and as Paul 
did for those faithless ones who forsook him in 






The Life oe Loye. 39 

his sorest need. And the glory of it is that, if 
we begin with right good will to pray for our 
persecutors, our love for them will certainly 
grow. The praying will set us to planning how 
we may answer our prayers, how we can compass 
the greater good of those whose names we have 
borne up morning and evening at the Throne 
of Grace. 

These three things — action, speech, and 
prayer — we shall surely do if we are full of love. 
Christ commanded it, and also showed us how, 
by his own blessed example. Others have done 
it. The unrecorded conquests of kindness, where 
enmity has melted away before the unostentatious 
but persistent display of generous love, would 
fill many volumes. 

And we can not afford, for our own sake, to 
say nothing about other people, to do any differ- 
ent. It does not pay to foster hatred, to take 
umbrage, or to have grudges and grievances. It 
is the worst possible investment we can make. A 
very little of this sort of thing will shut God out 
of our hearts, strip us of usefulness, and poison 
our life. "How pleasant it is to have the bird 
in the bosom sing sweetly !" 



40 The Life oe Loye. 

In this connection Bishop Janes's three rules 
may be commended. They were as follows: 
"Never to take offense, never to ask for expla- 
nations, and always to treat everybody as though 
nothing had happened." Occasionally an expla- 
nation is a good thing, but taking offense is al- 
ways bad; and to go right on quietly, genially, 
in our relations with other people, as though we 
had seen nothing, heard nothing, is a wise pro- 
ceeding and a great victory. 

the beauty and the benefit, the gladness 
and the glory, that there is in love, in loving 
even those that are most uncharitable and un- 
congenial! We may claim it as a part of our 
birthright. If we are God's children, we may 
get power from him to gain this blissful height. 
In his mighty name we may grasp and hold this 
grandest attainment. 

BE MOEE GENTLE. 

A well-known member of the House of 
Commons, who died a few years ago, said, to- 
wards the close of his life, that, if he were called 
again to go over former lines of thought, he 



The Life of Loye. 41 

would bear himself more gently and in a more 
modest, kindly, and charitable spirit than he 
once did. How often we hear of something sim- 
ilar to this being uttered by people as they draw 
near to the bound of life! Young men often 
think they must be very stern and strenuous, 
very hard and heroic, and must brand evils un- 
flinchingly, no matter who is hurt in the process. 
They have much self-confidence, and are very 
sure that whatever does not commend itself 
to their judgment or taste is an evil that should 
be summarily put down. So they impinge with 
violence against a great many people, and create 
much unnecessary bad feeling. But when they 
are older grown, and understand human nature 
better, they begin slowly to realize what blunders 
they have made. They see it would have been 
better not to have pushed with such fierceness 
or condemned with such severity. We rarely feel 
that we have been too gentle and modest, too 
charitable and kindly. 

"If our love were but more simple, 
We should take Him at His word; 
And our lives would be all sunshine 
In the sweetness of our Lord." 

— Faber. 



42 The Life of Loye. 



SELFISH LOVE. 

Although love and selfishness are accounted 
as nearly opposite and mutually exclusive as any 
terms can be, nevertheless there is a feeling for 
which no better name suggests itself than selfish 
love. In other words, the love and selfishness 
are so mingled that it is difficult to tell which 
of the two predominates. Do not the Savior's 
words to his disciples (John xiv, 28), "If ye loved 
me, ye would have rejoiced because I go unto 
my Father," contain a much-needed lesson for 
many modern mourners? The disciples were so 
absorbed in themselves and in their own pros- 
pective loss that they had no thought for their 
Master's gain. And hereby their love was shown 
to be sadly defective, if not altogether lacking. 

We see a similar display of self in much of 
the lamentation over departed friends to-day. 
The violent grief proclaims that not the good 
of those to whom we profess such extreme devo- 
tion, but our own inconvenience or loneliness, 
is the main thing in our thought. Disinterested 
love is rare. We are apt to love other people 



The Life of Love. 43 

because of what they have done or can do for 
us. Is not this loving self in a roundabout way ? 
When our love gets truly Godlike, it will go out 
mainly toward those from whom we have no hope 
of return; it will delight itself in giving, not in 
receiving. 

THE ONE STANDAKD. 

We sometimes hear references to the "high- 
est New Testament standard" of experience and 
life. The expression probably has its uses, but 
we question the strict propriety of it. It seems 
to imply that a variety of standards are recog- 
nized by Christ as legitimate. We do not so 
read his words. Thoroughgoing loyalty is funda- 
mental to the New Testament idea of a follower 
of Jesus. No one can be his disciple without for- 
saking all. And this same attitude must be 
steadily, consistently maintained throughout the 
whole journey. The amount covered by the word 
"all" will continually enlarge as the disciple goes 
forward, and this will necessitate a constant 
deepening of the consecration; but he may and 
should be equally loyal from beginning to end. 



44 The Life of Love. 

If he is, then, under the ever-advancing light, 
the self-life will perpetually diminish, and the 
Christ-life perpetually develop, Christ being, 
from year to year, more and more fully formed 
within. Thus, while each moment all our con- 
scious needs are met in Jesus, our unconscious 
selfishness is increasingly being shined upon, and 
so purged away. 



WATCHES AND WILLS. 

The testing of watches by some presumably 
accurate noon signal is a matter of common oc- 
currence, and has an importance of the minor 
sort. But the testing of our wills to see whether 
or not they move in exact harmony with the 
will of God, has an importance very far higher. 
And we can apply the test, not once a day merely, 
but many times; for the Divine will comes to us 
in some shape every moment, comes in all the 
varied occurrences that fill the hours. Do we 
find our wills chiming accurately with His, with- 
out deviation, not running ahead nor lagging be- 
hind, neither fast nor slow? The events that 



The Life of Love. 45 

do not accord with our natural likings are, of 
course, the special points of testing. Do we fly 
out at them? Do we fume and chafe and com- 
plain? Is there a struggle before we can bring 
ourselves to order, and resolve to harmonize with 
God's appointment ? Then our wills are too slow. 
Or are we impatient at the tardy progress of 
events? Then our wills are too fast. It means 
a great deal to have them just right, moving like 
a timepiece of fine workmanship delicately ad- 
justed. Few reach it. But it pays well for all 
endeavor. It is the only place of perfect peace. 
To meet a living will of God in all, and to 
recognize the Father's love beating continually 
and most warmly in all His will, — this it is to 
have one's days crowned with gladness and one's 
soul filled with perpetual praise. And since prac- 
tice makes perfect — and practice alone, in things 
that require our co-operation, and are accom- 
plished by voluntary action, for only that which 
is purely passive can be made perfect in a moment 
by a higher power — shall we not do well care- 
fully to cultivate the habit of bringing our wills 
into complete unison with God's? Will it not 
be a help also if, whenever we test the accuracy 



46 The Life of Love. 

of our watches, we bethink ourselves about the 
will, and raise an earnest prayer to God that 
we may reach perfect harmony of movement in 
this? 

SEVEN GOOD MOTTOES. 

Very precious commodities are usually 
packed in small trunks; and the most impor- 
tant principles of conduct, suitable to be adopted 
as guides through life, may easily be put into 
pithy statements of briefest compass. When 
thus phrased, they form mottoes convenient to 
carry about, and often of inestimable value for 
the regulation of behavior. A few such max- 
ims are here submitted as containing, when 
taken together, a pretty full directory of action, 
and every way worthy of adoption by all who 
would walk after the example of Christ. 

1. Deal directly with God. It saves a world 
of worry. If we fix our thought on minor in- 
strumentalities and subordinate agencies, and 
live down in the low realm of secondary causes, 
there is no end to our troubles; but if we re- 
ceive all from God, do all for God, take all to 



The Life of Loye. 47 

God, talk over all with God, bear all in God, 
walking always before him/ leaning always on 
him, thinking always of him, there is no end to 
our peace. It is the best policy to deal, when 
possible, with the head of the firm rather than 
with the underlings. God is responsible, in one 
way or another, for everything that meets us. 
He is the sovereign of the universe, and holds 
the reigns of government firm. Men are his 
hands. Things are the products of his power. 
If we have complaints about the weather, or any- 
thing else that we do not like, they should be 
carried to Him who notes the sparrow's fall, and 
numbers the hairs of our head. "Is any cheer- 
ful, let him sing praise." Thus we live continu- 
ally the life of faith, and become conquerors of 
circumstances. 

2. In I am, and on I must. Everybody is in 
something. If in the wrong thing, let him get 
out with the least possible further loss; but if 
he is faced in the right direction, then, in God's 
name, forward. Difficulties will appear, but he 
who has the spirit of this "must" will see in 
them only additional incentives to exertion. He 
will not weaken or waver because of obstacles. He 



48 The Life oe Love. 

will not own defeat, or admit the possibility of 
failure. He will reach the port, no matter how 
the winds blow. He who feels the force of this 
mighty "must" will persist, and, in spite of hin- 
drances that might daunt ordinary men, will he- 
roically press his way to the front. He refuses 
to hear of any other possibility. The "On I 
must" becomes changed to the more cheerful 
shout, "On I will," and it rings out so clear and 
sharp that everything gives way before it, and 
victory is his. 

3. I will not be unhappy. No less a leader 
than Bishop Janes, hearing this declaration in 
the first year of his ministry from a poor and 
aged colored woman, passed it on in later times 
to his daughter, confessing that it had greatly 
influenced his life. That the will has much to 
do with our happiness, no thoughtful person 
denies or forgets. While we can not directly 
control our feelings, we can, by indirection, 
easily regulate them. We can command our 
thoughts. We can turn away from or turn to 
the consideration of disagreeable topics. We can 
dwell on the brighter or the sadder aspects of 
our situation. We can reckon up the comforts 



The Life of Loye. 49 

or the discomforts of our lot. We can look up 
to the few or down to the many. We can cherish 
self-will, or heartily take God's will in its stead. 
If we do the latter, we shall be happy, as all 
the children of the King are privileged and re- 
quired to be. 

Jf. Servant of all, servile to none. Let there 
be no crawling and cringing and fawning before 
superior power and rank, no falling on one's 
knees or face to kiss the hand or lick the dust 
obsequiously. This is too base and groveling for 
any man made in the image of his Maker, espe- 
cially if he be a brother of the Lord Jesus Christ 
and a child of the King of kings. But to be 
of some genuine use to others, however menial 
the labor; to do a real kindness, though it may 
require low bending, — is honorable in all. It was 
the Lord himself who said, "I am among you 
as he that serveth," and who came "not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister." It was his 
chief apostle who declared his purpose to be "all 
things to all men." But the total absence of 
any sinister or selfish design on the part of both 
Jesus and Paul, makes it impossible that their 
civility should be construed as servility. Ser- 
4 



50 The Life of Love. 

vility puts its neek beneath the foot of him who 
is on a higher rung of the social ladder, and at 
the same time crushes with its heel the head of 
him below. Service is so busy bending to stretch 
a hand to the one beneath that its head can not 
be touched from above. Servility is a curse to 
itself and all around. Service is thrice blessed. 
5. Sanctified affliction is spiritual promotion. 
Trouble by itself will do us no good. It must 
be rightly used. But when thus used, nothing 
is more prolific of benefit. "It is a great loss 
to lose an affliction," said Wesley. And they do 
lose it who fail to get better by it. Nothing is 
easier. It takes much grace to get more grace, 
even by this means so well adapted to produce 
it. Everything depends on how the trial is 
received. If it be looked upon as "the shadow 
of God's wings" — wings that brood over us in 
tenderest affection — then rich fruitage follows. 
But if it be regarded as the shadow of a thunder- 
cloud, laden only with destruction and wrath, 
then only evil results. The same sun that soft- 
ens the wax hardens the clay. The same heat 
that brings foul odor from the dunghill brings 
perfume from the flower. Blessed is he who 



The Life oe Love. 51 

so eagerly desires spiritual growth that he wel- 
comes the cross through which it comes. 

6. Fear not, only believe. These words of our 
Lord to the anxious ruler of the synagogue ap- 
ply to a thousand situations in our mixed-up 
modern life. "Be of good comfort," he says; 
"let not your heart be troubled." If this does 
not put spirit into us, what can? Faith makes 
fear impossible. It claims the promise, "There 
shall no evil befall thee," and walks the waves 
in constant triumph. He who believes God's 
Word can never be downhearted, never really in 
trouble. Happy indeed is he. 

7. With both hands earnestly. It is the prophet 
Mieah who speaks thus, writing of wicked men 
who do evil in this energetic manner. Should 
not the good counteract and oppose the evil with 
similar zeal? Many, alas! are working with but 
one hand; others serve with both hands, it is true, 
and yet lack that last finish to their character 
which is supplied by the "earnestly." They do 
not take off their coat and roll up their sleeves 
in God's cause, as if they really meant business. 
They do not say with St. Paul, "This one thing 
I do." Some few can be classified in this high- 



52 The Life of Loye. 

est list. They are the elite of the kingdom, the 
picked soldiers of the King's own body-guard. 
How grand their honor, how keen their joy! We 
may be in the number, if we so determine. 



TWO KINDS OF LOVE. 

Unless one clearly and constantly discrimi- 
nates between the two kinds of love, he will find 
himself involved in much difficulty, both with re- 
gard to the interpretation of the Bible and the 
guidance of daily life; for, on the one hand, we 
are commanded to love not the world; while, on 
the other hand, there is no plainer duty than 
to love all the world. 

The latter is the love of benevolence, or well- 
wishing. We are to do good to all people just 
so far as we can, having indeed that sweet foun- 
tain of good will in our heart flowing so freely 
that nothing can stop it. It pours itself by an 
inward necessity upon all it can reach, even as 
the sun shines upon the evil and the good by 
the law of its own nature, and even as God him- 
self loves all creatures because of a fullness of 



The Life of Loye. 53 

affection which must make itself universally 
felt. 

Very different from this is the love of com- 
placence or approval, which can only be exer- 
cised upon those who are worthy of it. We can 
take pleasure only in those whose conduct com- 
mends itself in our eyes. We can find satisfac- 
tion only in such characters as are conformed to 
what we regard as the standard of right. Hence 
it is very plain that it never was intended that 
we should love everybody in the same sense. We 
can not, and should not, feel towards the wicked 
as toward the good. Loving our enemies is a 
wholly practicable duty when rightly understood. 



TWO KINDS OF ANGEE. 

We are commanded, at least once (Eph. iv, 
26), to be angry. Anger is forbidden a great 
many times, from which it is perfectly evident 
that there is a righteous anger and a sinful anger. 

Eighteous anger is that feeling of displeas- 
ure for what we regard as wrong, which must 
dwell in every good man's breast. He who does 



54 The Life of Love. 

not possess it is necessarily a bad man, either 
practicing the wrong himself or tacitly approv- 
ing of and conniving at it. He who regards fla- 
grant evil with complacency, or is even silent in 
its presence, writes himself down a coward, if 
not a villain. Not to have anger when there is 
call for it is quite as much a fault as to have it 
when there is no call for it. Eighteous anger is 
one of the great preserving forces of society, one 
of the best safeguards of morality and decency. 
There ought to be ten times as much of it ex- 
hibited as there is. It is deeply harbored in the 
heart of God. His wrath, hate, anger, indigna- 
tion, are spoken of considerably more than three 
hundred times in the Scriptures; ever so much 
oftener than his love; and it is the business of 
all who would be like God to see to it that they 
resemble him closely in this. 

But sinful anger, which we classify with vio- 
lence and virulence, with vindictiveness and mal- 
ice, is quite a different thing. It is a form of 
that selfishness which is always evil. It is tainted 
with bitterness, malignancy, personal resent- 
ment, and revenge. It is associated with rage 
and fury. It is never commendable. 



The Liee oe Love. 55 

Anger is right when it is roused, not by per- 
sonal injury, but by sin and wrong. It has an 
important place to fill in the family, the school, 
and the State. In all sorts of government it is 
indispensable and necessary. But great care is 
needed that it be always of the sort that leaves 
no sting behind it because having no sin in it; 
the sort that makes the world, not worse, but 
better; the sort that God must approve because 
it is what he practices. 



TWO KINDS OF FEAE. 

That there are two kinds of fear spoken of 
in the Bible every one must be aware who has 
at all considered the fact that some fifty times 
we are bidden most peremptorily not to fear, 
while the commands to fear are very numerous. 
But the exact distinction between these two fears 
is not, perhaps, by all clearly grasped. It 
should be. 

The good kind of fear is really reverence 
and watchfulness. It is allied to respect and es- 
teem. It prompts to great carefulness, lest we 



56 The Life of Love. 

wound the feelings or lose the affections of the 
object of the fear. It is such a fear as a loyal 
son has toward his father, to whom he looks up 
with something of veneration. It is another form 
of vigilance, not mixed with torment or con- 
nected with pain, but quiet, serene, confident, 
and determined; a wholesome restraint against 
heedlessness and false security; a spur in the 
race, prompting us to take every precaution to 
make our calling to glory sure. It is a virtue, a 
part of love itself. 

The bad kind of fear is really dread or cow- 
ardice, apprehension awakened by something 
likely to harm, or from which we wish to flee. 
It is "a painful emotion excited by anticipation 
of evil." It springs from sin, and leads to mis- 
ery. It is the feeling of the slave in view of the 
lash. It is injurious every way, destroying 
peace and paralyzing power. 

The good kind of fear, which we are to culti- 
vate, can readily be distinguished from the bad 
kind, which we are to put away, by the fact that 
the latter is troubled about self, and the former 
about somebody else. The sorrow in the latter 
case is that our own comfort, or plenty, or ease, 



The Life of Love. 57 

or honor, seems likely to be diminished. The 
sorrow in the former case is that the comfort or 
honor of some one we love appears likely to be 
affected, which is a very different thing indeed. 
The two kinds of fear are heaven-wide apart; 
and yet the poverty of our language is such that 
we try to express both feelings with one word. 



A FEW MISTAKES. 

It is a mistake to think that when there are 
two courses presented to the mind, that which 
is most irksome and painful, most arduous and 
distasteful, is sure to be the course of duty. 
Some people have a sort of notion that every- 
thing pleasant or agreeable is in some way con- 
nected with sin. It is easy to see how this idea 
comes, and how, in a certain sense, it is natural. 
When the heart is unregenerate, most of its im- 
pulses are likely to be evil. And when the 
change that has passed over it is only partial, 
there is still so much of the "old man" lingering 
there that its choices must be viewed with. dis- 
trust and suspicion. Indeed, there is no period 



58 The Life oe Love. 

of life, no stage of sanctification, when we are al- 
together free from the danger of listening to 
the voice of self -gratification. There is a natural, 
innocent "self" that under some circumstances 
must be denied, as well as a sinful self. Watch- 
fulness at this point there must always be. Never- 
theless, it should not be forgotten that our Fa- 
ther is kind and loving, not austere and stern, 
delighting in the happiness, not the misery, of 
his children; their health, not illness; and mak- 
ing ample provision for the gratification of every 
innocent proclivity. Asceticism and itionastieism 
pertain not to the true spirit of Christianity. 
Christ's burden is light when the back is willingly 
bent to bear it, because then the all-sufficient 
strength so freely accorded is plentifully ob- 
tained. On very many occasions he would cer- 
tainly take the wrong path who should be guided 
in his decision chiefly or largely by the compara- 
tive amount of hardship presented. 

It is a mistake to suppose that if we are very 
active in Christian work, our Christian experi- 
ence will take care of itself, and does not need 
special attention. It is true that, as a rule, one 
whose experience is defective or declining, will 



The Life oe Loye. 59 

not take much interest in religions activity. Bnt 
those of a certain temperament and surround- 
ings may quite easily be led to substitute work 
for worship, and may backslide while very busy 
about the things of the sanctuary. It is not 
enough to do; the why we do needs to be closely 
scrutinized. The motives may be very largely 
mixed with earthly elements, and so the char- 
acter of the service be very seriously flawed. 
Ministers, Sunday-school laborers, and such like, 
need to give heed to this point. It is the quality 
of the work quite as much as the quantity that 
tells. ISTo one can afford to let his outward activi- 
ties deprive him of the opportunity for medita- 
tion. Only by much of this can our principles 
take on strength, and the Spirit of the Master 
be fully gained. 

It is equally a mistake to suppose that, with- 
out the doing of what Christian work is in our 
power we can be really growing in grace. A piety 
that consists chiefly of frames of feeling, or glow- 
ing sentiments, or heavenly visions, or shouts and 
songs, and does not materialize in any practical 
direction, fails to commend itself to the judicious 
as genuine, And we have the very best authority 



60 The Life of Love. 

for saying that it will not secure entrance into the 
heavenly kingdom. God may not himself need 
the work that we do — f or he has other ways of 
accomplishing his ends — but we need it for the 
proper perfecting of our character. We can not 
be sure that we have the spirit of ministry un- 
less we really minister when occasion comes, and 
unless we have that spirit we do not belong to 
Christ. 

It is a mistake to consider that all who do 
not use our terms, or who differ with our way 
of putting things, are opposed to what is good 
and true. They may hold to the substance as 
firmly as we do, while taking a different view of 
the accessories. While in essentials unity is nec- 
essary, in all non-essentials there should be ut- 
most liberty, and in everything there should be 
perfect charity. How many good causes are 
marred by an over-emphasizing of minor points 
and a consequent alienation between those who 
are really on the same side in all that is impor- 
tant. Eare is the large-hearted, catholic spirit 
of a John Wesley, who could say: "Though we 
can not think alike, may we not love alike? May 
we not be of one heart, though we are not of one 



The Life or Love. 61 

opinion? Without doubt, we may. Herein all 
the children of God may unite, notwithstanding 
these small differences." 

It is a mistake to be so chary of praise as to 
keep back nearly all commendation till our friends 
are dead. Why do we do it? It arises, perhaps, 
partly from thoughtlessness, partly from selfish- 
ness, partly from bashfulness, partly from igno- 
rance. Everybody likes to receive a word of 
praise and appreciation occasionally, and almost 
everybody is really benefited by it. Yet few have 
sufficient care for others' happiness and good 
to take the slight pains requisite to speak that 
word. It is not creditable to human nature. Let 
us be more heedful to scatter sunshine 
around us. 

It is a mistake to imagine that it is safe to 
neglect little things, little infelicities of man- 
ner, little departures from truth or honesty or 
honorable conduct, little opportunities of use- 
fulness. Sir Frederick BramwelPs inaugural ad- 
dress as president of the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science a few years ago, took 
for its text the words, "Next to nothing." He 
showed how the success of the civil engineer, and, 



62 The Life of Love. 

for that matter, of all scientific men, depends 
on taking into account the "next-to-nothings," 
on attention to the minutest details. So is it most 
emphatically with him who has undertaken to 
be a perfect Christian. Slipshod habits at any 
point will be fatal to his success. He can not 
safely neglect the smallest matter. He must 
be not merely about right, but wholly right. He 
must, for example, speak the exact truth, avoid- 
ing, so far as possible, the unconscious biases of 
unrecognized prejudice and the minute warpings 
and colorings of self-interest. He must keep 
clear of those trifling exaggerations and extenua- 
tions to which self-love so strongly impels. In 
debate, he must use the utmost care properly to 
apprehend and correctly to represent his oppo- 
nent's position. So, too, must he look after the 
little leaks, in the way of hasty words, unchari- 
table speech, ungoverned thoughts, which, if not 
attended to, will be sure to empty him eventually 
of Christian joy. 

Christian living is an art requiring constant 
study and practice. He will make most progress 
in it who applies himself to it with greatest dili- 
gence and concentration. We must not be "igno- 



The Life of Love. 63 

rant of Satan's devices/' nor underestimate the 
subtlety and power of our great adversary. It 
is a wonderful thing to be, in the fullest, largest 
sense of the term, a complete Christian, fully 
representing the Master, a perfect image of our 
Lord. 

"ALL EIGHTS KESEKVED." 

These words are well enough on the covers of 
magazines or title-pages of books as a protection 
against literary piracy ; but when they appear 
stamped on the faces of folks, it is quite another 
thing. We have all seen such people. They are 
full to the brim of a sense of their own impor- 
tance, and extremely jealous of the slightest en- 
croachment upon their precious privileges. "No 
trespassing" appears in bold letters on every por- 
tion of their anatomy. They stand upon their 
dignity with a stiffness that rarely permits them 
to sit down or to take much ease. Their high 
claims are set forth, if not in words, at least in 
manner, on every occasion, and they plainly show 
that not an atom will be abated from them on 
any account. They are sticklers for the last far- 



64 The Life of Loye. 

thing, and would rather die than yield a point 
of precedence, or allow to pass without challenge 
and resentment whatever they consider an in- 
fringement on their honor. They are continually 
suspicious, most uncomfortable to deal with, and 
so fond of justice that they entirely ignore mercy 
and are very chary of common civility. Alas for 
such! We pity them. Few things are more ef- 
fective in producing a thoroughly unlovely habit 
of mind than the perpetual insistence upon the 
utmost limit of our rights. There is far greater 
nobility in the cheerful waiving of rights for the 
comfort and pleasure of others. Generosity is 
better than justice in this matter. Instead of 
"All rights reserved," let the motto be, "All du- 
ties thankfully acknowledged and faithfully per- 
formed." 

LAEGE-TYPE CHEISTIANS. 

The edition of large-type Christians seems 
to be small. A fuller supply is loudly called for, 
and is greatly needed at once. The demand is 
brisk, and the market is very scantily stocked. 
We mean Christians who can be read at a glance, 



The Life oe Loye. 65 

even by those whose eyesight for this sort of 
thing is unusually poor, Christians whose virtues 
stand out distinctly, and whose good qualities are 
so pronounced that no one, however hurriedly 
passing by, can possibly mistake them. The eyes 
that scan Christian character are blurred by sin 
and dimmed by prejudice. If it is demanded of 
them that they look close and long, that they 
take much pains to make out the meaning of our 
lives, we may be certain that they will fail to 
see us as plainly as we could wish. We must not 
put this strain upon them. We must make it 
easy for them to apprehend the message of God, 
however hastily they rush along. 

How can we do it? Not, of course, in the 
Pharisaic mode, by sanctimonious phrases and 
peculiarities of dress and ostentatious charities; 
not by holding frigidly aloof from all innocent 
amusements and manly sports and social gather- 
ings ; not by being a hermit or a cynic, or a censor 
and accuser of one's brethren; but by an honesty 
which scorns to take advantage of legal quibbles 
or bend to the crooked customs of the street; by 
a truthfulness as straightforward as the sunlight; 
by a sympathy which comes as a blessed balm 
5 



66 The Life of Love. 

of healing to many a wounded spirit; by a faith- 
fulness to every trust, and a steadfast courage 
against every wrong, joined with a frank, open, 
modest confession of the Master whenever the 
occasion admits of it. When there are such words 
backed up by such works, no one has difficulty 
in perceiving the stamp of Christ. His seal, the 
seal of the Holy Spirit, is impressed so strongly 
and so broadly on some souls that even they who 
run may read it, and many who read it are led 
to run after it. The number of such is far too 
small. It should be immediately multiplied. 



IS ANXIETY A DUTY? 

The Scripture doctrine as to the privilege 
and duty of the Christian to be free from anx- 
iety is scarcely ever clearly set forth but what 
some good man rises to protest that a little worry 
is unavoidable and is really a good thing, inas- 
much as it prompts to earnest action: which sim- 
ply serves to illustrate how difficult it is on any 
subject to choose words that will be entirely 
free from ambiguity. It is evident that people 



The Life of Love. 67 

attach different meanings to the term "anxiety." 
The good man just referred to does not sufficiently 
discriminate, has not looked closely enough to 
his definitions. He mixes up proper forethought 
and suitable painstaking with worry and anxiety. 
But they are not at all the same. It by no means 
follows that one who has cast all his care on 
God, as we are repeatedly commanded to do, has 
cast away his common sense or his willingness 
to work. It is entirely possible to trust with 
all one's heart, and at the same time labor with 
all one's might. Freedom from anxiety is not 
synonymous with listlessness and indifference, 
though it appears to be so regarded by some. 

Anxiety is something which we are, over and 
over again, in the Scripture commanded to have 
done with. Two quotations out of many are 
enough to cite: "Be not anxious" (Matt, vi, 25, 
31, 34, E. V.); "In nothing be anxious" (Phil, 
iv, 6, E. V.) What is the anxiety which is here 
forbidden? The dictionaries, as well as the der- 
ivation and the common use of the word, fully 
warrant us in declaring that it means a painful 
uneasiness or distress of mind regarding some- 
thing which we wish or fear. And this definition 



68 The Life of Love. 

has the great merit of being in complete har- 
mony with the Biblical usage. It would be a 
very strange proceeding indeed for us, by our 
definition, to empty of all significance, or turn 
into nonsense, a positive order of the Master 
and of the Apostle Paul. They who plead that 
anxiety is a duty can hardly have reflected on 
the difficult position in which they place them- 
selves with reference to the above-mentioned 
texts. 

Jesus certainly takes great pains to show 
that anxiety about our temporal supplies — and 
nine-tenths of people's anxieties concern these 
things — is wholly incompatible with proper 
trust in our Heavenly Father, who knows our 
needs, and has promised to supply them, we, 
of course, on our side, doing our best to co- 
operate with his plans. Pew have the hardihood 
directly to combat this position. The claim is 
more frequently heard that anxiety is not only 
justifiable, but distinctly commendable in regard 
to our friends and with respect to spiritual mat- 
ters. The mother declares that she can not help 
being anxious for her boy, who is in the army — 
anxious, not only for his physical safety, but for 



The Life of Loye. 69 

his moral character and his salvation from sin. 
Her distress of mind, her disturbance of soul, 
she looks upon as a virtue, and resents the sug- 
gestion that it is both useless and sinful. It 
would certainly be wrong for her to refrain from 
doing anything which seemed likely to be a help 
to the young man. She must pray, she must 
send him good counsel, she must do her best in 
all available ways to protect him from harm 
and bind him to God. But when she has done 
all this, and while she is doing it, is she not fully 
authorized to intrust his safekeeping to One who 
watches over him with more than a mothers 
love, and who will do the very best possible for 
him? And if this trust is perfect, will it not 
bring her perfect peace and destroy her fears? 
Does not her trouble arise from the fact that 
she does not fully know God, or is not entirely 
willing that God's course with her son — which 
may involve much suffering to him and her — 
should be taken? Surely the many, many com- 
mands in the Bible to "fear not" are intended 
to cover all our fears; and fearfulness in every 
instance means faithlessness. 

He who really trusts rests. A quiet mind 



70 The Life of Love. 

is not a mark of laziness or apathy, but of ab- 
solute confidence in Him who never fails his be- 
lieving children. With him no emergency is un- 
foreseen, no want unprovided for. His power 
is infinite; he can not err; his love is beyond our 
comprehension. The stops of a good man, as well 
as his steps, are ordered of the Lord. In lean- 
ing upon him we are beyond the reach of dis- 
appointment. He never takes anything away but 
to give us something better in its stead. He 
makes circumstances to become our servants. 
The riches of God's provisions for his people are 
but little apprehended by the average Christian; 
he does not search the Scriptures diligently, and 
meditate on them day and night, that he may 
know what God will do for those who prove him; 
and he does not account it a matter of any im- 
portance that by his doubts and fears he fails 
to glorify the Father. It is easy to make ex- 
cuses that will seem to justify slight wrong- 
doings. It is easy to become content with a low 
standard of Christian living. It is natural to 
find fault with those who insist that there is a 
better way. But with those who walk continu- 
ally by faith it has come to be an axiom that 



The Liee op Loye. 71 

where trust begins anxiety ends, and where anx- 
iety begins trust ends. We are persuaded that, 
the more thoughtfully it is examined, the more 
thoroughly it will commend itself as true. 



THE EYE OP THE MASTEK. 

A man once asked an Eastern sage, "What 
will most quickly fatten a horse ?" The reply 
was, "The eye of the master." Many questions 
connected with Christian living might, with 
equal wisdom, be answered in the same way. 
What will most quickly lead to swift progress in 
divine things? The eye of the Master. What 
will most surely keep us in mind of duty? The 
eye of the Master. What will best guard us 
against impatience, unkindness, and all other 
steppings-aside from the straight path? The 
eye of the Master. In one sense it is always on 
us. Yet the practical effect is not secured un- 
less we bear it in mind. 

Our eye must also be on the Master. Our 
thought must take notice of his presence. Noth- 
ing is more vital to our advancement in holiness 



72 The Life of Love. 

than constant recollectedness of spirit. To watch 
and pray without ceasing is the key of the situ- 
ation. The habit is not taken on except by ef- 
fort; but the effort will not be irksome if there 
be full and fervent love behind it. And only 
much practice can make perfect in this, as in all 
things else. Love and labor, prayer and pains, 
toil and time and trust, are the words that con- 
tain the secret of success in this as in other at- 
tainments. 

INTENTIONS SHOULD BE INTENSE. 

Many people make the mistake of rating their 
good intentions as equivalent to actions, and so 
swelling the credit side of their account beyond 
reason. And when they go still further, as they 
generally do, and dignify their idle wishes with 
the name of intentions, the harm done is very 
serious. They need to be plainly told that a wish 
is by no means a will, and that the will can not 
be accepted in place of the deed if it is in any 
way possible for the deed to be done. The trou- 
ble with a multitude of the intentions on which 
people pride themselves is that they are not in- 



The Life oe Loye. 73 

tense enough. The mind has not set itself in 
earnest on the accomplishment of the thing in 
hand; hence it lets little hindrances frustrate the 
infirm purpose, and tries to draw comfort from 
the thought that it meant to do right. But this 
will not avail. It is one thing to be nobly indif- 
ferent about results when the hardest kind of 
work has been put in to bring them to pass; but 
the indifference is ignoble which satisfies itself 
with a half-hearted endeavor, and then cries out, 
"It is of no use to make further effort." Many 
men succeed because they never know when they 
are defeated. 

GODFULNESS. 

If irreligion is fitly called godiessness, how 
can genuine religion better be described than as 
godfulness? And what is it to be full of God? 
A man is said to be full of a subject when he 
thinks of it so continually that it rises readily 
to his lips on all occasions. Are there many that 
are full of God in this sense? Do they con- 
nect him with all events ? Do they find him sug- 
gested by everything that comes up? Does the 



74 The Life oe Love. 

mind revert to him when released from other 
engrossments? Is he the one absorbing theme 
of thought/ the dominant topic of conversation? 
Not many, it is to be feared, are thus filled with 
God. There is an experience which is sometimes 
designated as "full salvation;" but the words 
seem to have many meanings, and the fullness 
thus referred to is commonly but partial. There 
is great need that it be made much more com- 
plete. Only by constant effort and perpetual 
progress can the fullness be made commensurate 
with the ever-advancing requirements of the ever- 
increasing light and opportunity. 



BEST METHODS OF INTENSIFYING THE 
SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

To quicken and strengthen, to deepen and 
broaden that blessed life to which we are intro- 
duced at the new birth, is the true Christian's 
chief desire. How can it best be done ? Different 
minds will phrase it differently. Not all are 
equally benefited by the same means. Experiences 
greatly vary. Hence, no one answer, especially 



The Liee oe Love. 75 

if brief, can cover all the points that might well 
be suggested. But we offer the following, with 
the conviction that they will meet the need of 
most: 

1. Prayer should certainly be put first. Who- 
ever wants to be uncommonly good must pray 
with uncommon fervor and frequency. He must 
pray, not chiefly to get things, not as one beg- 
ging for gifts, not with the idea that the treas- 
ures of God are thus to be forced from him. His 
prayer will be mainly communion, a meditative, 
assimilative process. It will be the steadfast, pro- 
longed holding of his soul up to the great Sun 
of righteousness that upon him, as upon a sensi- 
tive plate, may be stamped the image divine. It 
can not be an instantaneous operation. Our souls 
are not sensitive enough for that. Our faith 
does ibot bring God near with sufficient vividness. 
It requires a longer exposure. But if we put 
ourselves frequently before the radiant face of 
the Master, and there tarry a good while, his im- 
age will be transferred to us more or less com- 
pletely. Much prayer, day and night, with heart 
and soul; prayer of the quiet, ruminating sort; 
prayer that talks with God, that pours out its 



76 The Life oe Love. 

longings for better things as into the ear of a 
most sympathizing friend; prayer that bursts 
forth at odd moments, that fills up the intervals 
of other occupations, that finds fitting vehicle 
in hymns and sacred songs and phrases from the 
Bible, — this surely must be, if large things are 
to be attained. He whose mind is set on such 
attainment will find prayer a privilege and a 
pleasure, not a task. It will be the delight of 
his days and the solace of his nights. Under its 
mighty stimulus progress will be rapid, the 
heights of Divine love that stretch on, peak after 
peak, will be steadily climbed, and from the 
mounts of Beulah Land the soul will look away 
across the sea where stand the heavenly mansions, 
and where the shining glory waits. 

2. Eead the best books. The Bible, of course, 
we never outgrow. It is not to be dispensed with 
at any stage of our Christian life. But there are 
other books that we can almost as little afford 
to neglect. To say to any one, "Bead the Bible 
only," is to give him poor advice. The masters 
in spiritual things who, while they have drawn 
their nutriment largely from Scripture, have put 
it into forms more closely adapted to modern life, 



The Life of Loye. 77 

who have applied all the powers of their being 
to ferreting out the secrets of holiness and happi- 
ness, who have communed with the Lord so 
closely that he has whispered to them things not 
generally known, — these fervent, foremost saints 
have put themselves on record for our instruc- 
tion. They have left us their thoughts bound up 
in books. The conclusions that they reached 
after long agony, sweat of brain, ache of heart, 
toil of pen, we may freely enjoy. We may hold 
converse at our pleasure with these great spirits, 
and we should be very much to blame if we did 
not do it. These best books are not many, and 
they cost but little. There is nothing that can 
take their place. For instruction in the highest 
of all arts, that of right living, the greatest of 
all sciences, that of true godliness, we are not 
obliged to lay out thousands of dollars. A paltry 
sum will do. The wise man will not begrudge it, 
nor fail to give each day some little time to this 
most improving of pursuits. 

3. If a person has a deep longing for God, 
a strong desire to be transformed into his like- 
ness, he will pick his company to this end. He 
must do it if he would succeed. Associations of 



78 The Life oe Loye. 

the right sort when he talks, as well as when he 
reads, are essential. The living men and women 
that he moves among must, so far as he can 
manage it, be those who will help, not hinder, 
him in his quest for holy attainment. They 
whose hearts are set on Christlikeness will keep 
out of those voluntary societies whose pledges 
would bind them to be intimate with persons that 
are strangers to vital godliness. Light will not 
coalesce with darkness ; or, if it does in one sense, 
the result will be diminished light. There are 
certain indulgences, not absolutely wicked, in de- 
fense of which a fair argument can be made, par- 
ticipation in which will kill the religious life and 
grieve the Holy Spirit. They minister to self- 
pleasing and self-seeking, instead of to the glory 
of God and the good of the weak. Hence they 
throw one out of touch with Jesus. Nothing pays 
better than the strict regulation of one's com- 
pany. It were well to go far, if need be, to find 
one so genuinely religious as to act like a tonie 
to the soul. It is a grand thing to form a little 
circle, however small, for mutual help in this 
vital matter. 

4. Besides unceasing prayer and the perusal 



The Life of Loye. 79 

of the best books and the picking of one's com- 
pany, with special reference to their ability and 
willingness to help us in the heavenly journey, 
there is one other thing not less important. It 
is the improvement of every opportunity for self- 
sacrifice. We must give Jesus, as often as pos- 
sible, that which means the crucifying of the 
flesh, the mortifying of appetite and desire. Is 
there any better, more widely applicable, more 
easily-adjusted way of doing this than the adop- 
tion of the tithing-rule in the administration of 
our personal and family finances, the giving of 
at least one-tenth of our pecuniary means stead- 
ily to the special work of God ? The reply usually 
made, "I can't afford it," is only another way of 
saying, "I do not love Christ enough to make 
some real sacrifice in his behalf." It is a very 
sad thing that so small a proportion of those who 
claim to belong to him, and to be making his will 
the rule of their lives, are able to endure this 
simple test of devotion. What would they do 
if the martyr fires were again burning and the 
block stood ready ? Christ gives us now an easier 
test than he gave the saints of old — a tithe of 
our possessions instead of our heart's blood. But 



80 The Life of Love. 

nearly all put away the thought somewhat im- 
patiently, and declare it is too much to give for 
him who gave for us his all. And so the blessing 
God waits to pour out is lost. It certainly is a 
shame, and a pity as well. When the pocketbook 
is placed on the altar of consecration, love will 
flame up in fullest measure, deepest impressions 
be made on those around us, and God's cause at 
home and abroad speed triumphantly on. 

"TRAVEL, TRAVEL!" 

De. Marcus Whitman, the missionary, who 
more than any other one man saved Oregon to 
the United States by his heroic winter ride amid 
extremest hardships and perils from the Pacific 
Coast to Washington, and then by leading back 
triumphantly a train of emigrant wagons over 
the untried passes of the Rockies, constantly 
urged along his sometimes lagging column on that 
fearful march with the words, "Travel, travel, 
travel! Nothing else will take you to the end 
of your journey; nothing is wise that does not 
help you along; nothing is good for you that 
gives a moment's delay." 



The Life of Love. 81 

A similar exhortation is pertinent to those 
who are traveling Zionward in the King's high- 
way. In most cases their progress is far from 
being what it should be. They meddle with too 
many things that fail to help them along. They 
do not enough reflect that they are pilgrims, nor 
fix their mind with sufficient intensity on the 
end of the road. They rest in past experience, 
and are content with being a little better than 
the average. They are so much occupied with 
looking at their neighbors that they do not very 
much look at Christ, the model, and measure 
their progress by their approach to him. Noth- 
ing is really good that gives a moment's delay 
in this great work of life. Quite too many who 
even make high profession, and apparently think 
they are perfectly right, are only marking time. 
While they are so idly busy with self -congratula- 
tion, others of modester aspect have quite passed 
them by on the stretch, the home stretch, for 
complete Christlikeness. 

"Burn, burn, O Love! within my heart 
Burn fiercely night and day, 
Till all the dross of earthly loves 
Is burned and burned away." 

— Faber. 
6 



82 The Life of Love. 



STOP THE LEAKS. 

The prudent householder will see to his roof 
in time before his ceilings and carpets are ruined. 
The thrifty financier will closely scan his out- 
goes, and curtail the small expenses of day by 
day, well aware that it is the many littles that 
make the much, and that his funds will speedily 
be drained away if he does not look sharply after 
minute matters. It is not the floods of ocean 
pouring over the bulwarks that sends the good 
ship to the bottom, but the little leaks. 

Even so it is of primary importance to guard 
against leakage in spiritual strength and religious 
resources. A person at some revival time has 
gotten full of grace and fervor, love and zeal. 
If he only kept it all and went steadily on, how 
much permanent progress might he make! But 
how soon the leakage begins ! At a dozen points, 
through lack of watchfulness, the love and grace 
speedily commence to ooze away. Some small 
excuse detains from the place of prayer; atten- 
tion wanders from the sermon, and no profit is 
secured; uncharitable words are spoken; some 



The Life of Love. 83 

slight is brooded over; a doubtful gratification 
of the flesh is yielded to; the Bible is thrust 
aside, even on Sunday, for the secular newspaper. 
And so, in a multitude of ways which need not 
be further particularized, all of them slight and 
seemingly insignificant when taken separately, 
but mighty in combination, the waters of worldly 
conformity, the cold, deadly tides of spiritual in- 
difference, steal in, and, if they do not wholly 
swamp the ship, so waterlog her that any progress 
is out of the question. 

Surely it is the part of wisdom to stop the 
leaks. It may seem to require close, hard work, 
a vigilance that is irksome, a carefulness that 
wearies; but it pays. He who does it not will 
have no reason to be surprised when he discovers 
that he has lost all headway, and is settling down 
more and more into a state of spiritual wreck. 

"Just to leave in His dear hand 

Little things; 
All we can not understand, 

All that stings; 
Just to let him take the care 

Sorely pressing, 
Finding all we let him bear 

Changed to blessing. 



84 The Lipe op Loye. 

THEEE STAGES OP GEOWTH. 

It has been noted that there are three stages 
of growth commonly discernible in the Christian 
consciousness concerning prayer; namely, prayer 
as a refuge in emergencies, prayer as a habit at 
appointed times, and prayer as a state of con- 
tinuous living. This last stage — indicated in 
Scripture by such phrases as "Pray without ceas- 
ing/' "Praying always with all prayer and suppli- 
cation" — is realized by comparatively few. But 
it is our only safety, as well as our highest de- 
light and deepest peace. Since we are in con- 
tinual peril from the manifold temptations on 
every side, we should be in continual prayer. 
Only this can correct the restlessness so readily 
fostered by the present age. Only this can bring 
power, for it gives us unbroken contact with Him 
who alone is mighty. The things which are done 
in a spirit of prayer are very sure to prosper. 
Both mental and moral health are inseparably 
linked with it. Let us pray more. Let us pray 
always. 

"Beautiful lives are those that bless— 
Silent rivers of happiness, 
Whose hidden fountains but few may guess." 



The Life of Love. 85 

THEEE SNAGS. 

Those who are striving after the highest 
Christian development need to have a care in 
three directions, — in their doctrinal statements, 
their emotional experiences, and their practical 
life. They will be tempted to put too much 
emphasis on particular forms of words and 
phrases of speech, to be very strenuous as to 
just such and such expressions, and very per- 
sistent that certain favorite terms shall receive 
recognition. They will be disposed, perhaps, to 
think that such and such emotions are essential, 
that a particular order of feeling must be in- 
variably followed, and that, if other people's ex- 
perience is not run in precisely the same mold 
as their own, something is wrong with it. They 
will also be in danger of laying inordinate stress 
on unimportant details of dress or other external 
matters, forgetting that in all these things there 
may be great diversities of operation under the 
guidance of the same Holy Spirit. If these three 
snags were more generally avoided by those who, 
with the best of intentions, are striving hard to 
lead the very noblest kind of a life, their success 



86 The Life of Loye. 

would be more pronounced, and they would com- 
mend themselves more widely to the approval 
of the judicious. Godly living is an art that needs 
much study. 



FEASTING ON THE WILL OP GOD. 

To submit to the will of God is one thing; 
to feast upon it is quite another. A heathen 
philosopher can do the former; not every Chris- 
tian does the latter. But those who have once 
got a good taste of the sweetness of this kind 
of food find their appetite pretty well spoiled 
for inferior viands, and have an intense longing 
that all should share the banquet. The supply 
is limitless, and the flavor delicious. Nothing is 
so strengthening. Souls that are lean and weak 
find themselves in this sorry plight because the 
will of God disagrees with them, which is only 
another way of saying that they disagree with it. 
It is the true spiritual food, and if we can not 
take it, something must be seriously wrong with 
us, nor is there any hope of vital improvement 
till we set it right. 



The Liee oe Love. 87 



THE SCIENCE OP THE SAINTS. 

While there is occasionally one found who 
seems to have been taught of God in secret, and 
to owe very little to human instruction, it is very 
noticeable that nearly all the great saints of the 
past both applied their own minds with much 
diligence (minds, as a rule, of unusual caliber) 
to the things of God, and also largely availed 
themselves of the labors of those that had gone 
before. They confessed their indebtedness to 
others, and they did their best to increase, for 
those who should come after them, the stock of 
information and enlightenment. There has come 
thus to be what may fairly be called the science 
of the saints, a body of truth bearing on holy 
living, a collection of rules, methods, and prin- 
ciples, tested over and over again, and coming 
to us with all the weight of many generations or 
centuries of approval. 

It would be difficult, if not impossible, in a 
brief space to give a summary or synopsis of 
this best of all sciences. But no one can have 
read extensively in this kind of literature with- 



88 The Liee op Loye. 

out being impressed by the fact that there are 
a few things which come up again and again for 
indorsement and emphasis on the part of those 
who have given closest examination to spiritual 
things, and have made most progress in them. 
For example, they say, in different forms of 
speech and with much iteration, that self-re- 
nunciation, self-abandonment, self-annihilation, 
is the key to the religious life; that only he who 
gives all gets all; that going down is the way 
to go up ; that humbleness is holiness ; that noth- 
ing but absolute surrender can produce absolute 
peace; and that the problem of problems is to 
keep one's consecration in all possible particulars 
exactly correspondent to one's ever-increasing 
light. And this certainly is a great truth, ad- 
mitting of almost infinite expansion, illustration, 
and application. To get a firm grip on it for 
one's self, to follow out its multitudinous rami- 
fications, to guard against extravagance of state- 
ment, to note its qualifying limitations, yet to 
hold unflinchingly to its righteous standard, is a 
task of no small magnitude. To accomplish it 
will require all the mind one has. Happily, we 
are not responsible for using what we have not. 



The Life of Loye. 89 

But the more we use in this noblest of directions, 
the better we are likely to come out. 

Another point on which devout writers are 
fully agreed is that nothing can take the place 
of recollectedness of spirit; nothing can excuse 
a distracted mind; nothing can be more essential 
than close attention to the presence of God. This 
inward stillness (which may be maintained in the 
midst of outward necessary bustle), this divine 
tranquillity of soul, which results from turning 
the thought away from secondary agencies and 
fixing it on the great First Cause, is an indis- 
pensable aid against the power of the tempter. 
If our best Friend is ever at our right hand, 
we shall not go wrong. If we behold him stand- 
ing for our defense, we shall not care how many 
may be against us. If we deal directly with him 
in all the events that occur, we shall save our- 
selves a world of trouble. To make God great, 
and to make him immanent — to conceive of him 
as one not liable to be defeated in his plans, 
and as one who is not a mere superintendent at 
a distance, but an immediate participant or 
efficiency in every occurrence — is to make our- 
selves blissful if we are on his side. 



90 The Life of Love. 

Still again, the high authorities to which we 
refer lay much stress on the right regulation of 
the desires as being the key to contentment; on 
a constantly-increasing delicacy of conscience and 
keenness of moral discernment as an essential 
mark of constant growth; on greater fervency 
and frequency of intercessory prayer as a proof 
that we are loving our fellow-men more. These 
and other matters, too numerous here to enlarge 
upon, or even mention, have been profoundly in- 
vestigated by some of the best minds God has 
made; they have left us their deliberate con- 
elusions, the ripe results of lifelong thought, and 
we are warranted in affirming that we possess, 
as a consequence, a science of saintliness every 
way worthy to be studied. It may be said that 
it is all in the Bible, and so in one sense it is; 
it is there in the germ, just as all moral philos- 
ophy and all theology are there. But the fuller 
development of these truths, and their more exact 
adjustment to the details of modern life, is a 
very important work, a work not yet completed. 
No topic is more deserving of examination, none 
better repays it. "Zeal without knowledge is like 
haste to a man in the dark," or a man on the 



The Life of Loye. 91 

wrong road. Zeal, like a fire, needs watching as 
well as feeding. Our Churches should, no doubt, 
have more zeal; but it is none the less true that 
they suffer much because not properly informed 
as to the best lines of Christian progress. 

FEWER FAULTS. 

What is the best proof that a person has 
genuine piety? The vigor with which he takes 
up the difficult task of correcting his faults, re- 
moving as fast as possible all hindrances to use- 
fulness, all remnants of selfishness. He in whom 
love to God and men is full and fervent will 
spare no pains to cut off excrescences and fill up 
deficiences till a well-rounded, symmetrical char- 
acter is the triumphant result. To be careless 
in this matter, satisfied with growth in directions 
where there is not much opposition, is to be con- 
victed of having little real religion. Any one 
can develop along lines congenial and constitu- 
tional. The test comes when temperamental 
temptations are conquered and long-indulged 
habits reversed. This requires toil, and gives loud 
testimony to real earnestness. A great deal of 



92 The Life of Loye. 

labor can be put in at this point without very 
much apparent result; but the steady, even 
though slow, approach toward the perfection of 
one's daily life speaks volumes as to the genuine- 
ness of the love which furnishes the motive power. 

SLAVES, HIRELINGS, SONS. 

God's people in the world are of three classes. 
Some are slaves, and serve him from fear. Others 
are hirelings, and serve him for wages. Still 
others, not so many, are sons, and serve him 
for love. It would be well for us each to ask 
ourselves whereabouts in this classification we be- 
long. It is far better to serve him from fear 
than not to serve him at all. But the fear of 
the Lord is only the beginning of wisdom; there 
should be no stop there. They who have con- 
siderable regard to the wages, who are asking, 
like Peter, "Master, we have left all and followed 
thee; what shall we have?" are not to be ruled 
out as altogether mercenary and wholly destitute 
of true religion. Still it is clear that they have 
not reached the best place. They must press on, 
till it matters to them little or nothing whether 



The Life of Loye. 93 

joy comes or sorrow, so they but see his face and 
have permission to rest in his arms. Then are 
they his dear children. 

PEKSONAL APPKOPKIATIOK 

It is related of Mr. Joseph Mackey, some years 
ago publisher of the Commercial Gazette of New 
York, that, having a very large number of work- 
men in his employ, he had them print for his 
own individual use a complete copy of the Bible, 
differing from the ordinary one only in this, that 
wherever there was a general promise he made 
it particular by inserting his own name before 
it. For example, he made it read thus: "Joseph 
Mackey, ask and receive, that your joy may be 
full;" "Joseph Mackey, my grace is sufficient for 
thee;" "Joseph Mackey, greater is he that is 
in you than he that is in the world." We can 
well imagine that the Scriptures became a very 
different book to him when he read it in this 
way. And he really did not go beyond his privi- 
lege. All the obedient, believing disciples of 
Christ are fully authorized to appropriate to 
themselves personally the richest, largest words 



94 The Liee oe Loye. 

of the grand legacy he has left them. Their only 
care should be to comply with the conditions 
which are always either expressed or implied, and 
then, flinging themselves boldly on the naked 
Word, rest there in perfect peace. Every one 
may and should write in his own name before 
the promises, though he can not print it, as did 
Joseph Mackey. 

A SLACK WIKE. 

A few years ago there was a serious accident 
on the Lachine Canal, near Montreal. The wire 
communicating with the engineer of a certain 
steamer that was passing through the canal had 
become slack. The officer in charge on deck 
pulled the wire to ring the bell in the engine- 
room and stop the steamer as she entered one 
of the locks. The wire being out of order, the 
bell did not ring, the steamer kept on at full 
speed, the lock gates were smashed by the col- 
lision, the waters were suddenly let out, and many 
vessels inside were greatly damaged. There was 
also an obstruction to business for several days 
at a crowded season of the year, and a great fleet 



The Life of Loye. 95 

of upward and downward bound crafts were de- 
tained with much detriment to their cargoes. In- 
deed, the whole loss was estimated roughly at 
scarcely less than a million of dollars. And all 
from a slack wire ! 

The application is easy. Just as the officers 
of that ship made a great mistake when they 
were careless about that little medium of com- 
munication on which so much depended, so does 
that man make even a greater mistake who suf- 
fers the delicate line of communication between 
him and God to get out of order. The conse- 
quence is that the commands issued from above 
are not received or not heeded, and a headlong 
course into ruin is maintained. Some little ap- 
parently insignificant thing, some slight disobe- 
dience or willfulness is quite enough to inter- 
rupt the flow of guiding messages, and then the 
result in pain and loss, who can estimate ? Keep 
in close touch with God. Let not the wire get 
slack. 

"Only for Jesus! Lord, keep it ever 

Sealed on the heart and engraved on the life! 
Pulse of all gladness and nerve of endeavor, 
Secret of rest and the strength of our strife." 

—Miss F. R. Haveegal. 



96 The Life oe Love. 



LOCKING UP SPIEITUAL COIK 

In times of financial uncertainty a great deal 
of material coin is shut away from circulation 
through fear for its safety. Such a course is 
not usually regarded by the wise as either per- 
sonally profitable or adapted to the public good. 
Still less commendable is the habit of those who 
lock up behind closed lips that spiritual coin 
which might be of such priceless benefit to multi- 
tudes were it put in free circulation. 

The old song has made us familiar with the 
thought that "Kind words can never die." 
Equally true is it that words of natural, whole- 
some piety live on forever. Why should they not 
be more generally spoken? Fervent praise for 
common blessings is no doubt felt less often 
than it should be; but how much oftener felt 
than uttered ! The utterance would not only in- 
crease the feeling, but would stir the thankful- 
ness of others. "Take the name of Jesus with 
you/' is good advice. The more that matchless 
Name can sound forth from the mouths of those 
that love it, the better for the world. The little 



The Life of Loye. 97 

daily discontents and fretful frictions that press 
so heavily on many hearts would more frequently 
be lifted were an upward turn given to the 
thought by some religious reflection fittingly and 
openly expressed in their hearing. 

Our spiritual life is too much hidden behind 
a cloak of unseemly silence and stiff reserve. We 
act as though ashamed of emotion, if not in- 
deed ashamed of the Savior. By the memories 
of blessing which have come to us from the holy 
words of others, and by our hope of being "con- 
fessed" one day before the throne of God, let 
us not fail to enter these small doors of useful- 
ness that swing open at our side moment by mo- 
ment; let us not fail to send forth on their mis- 
sion of mercy the gold and silver coins of right 
words, wherever minted, that shall make many a 
poor soul rich. 

"He was better to me than all my hopes, 
He was better than all my fears; 
He made a bridge of my broken works, 

And a rainbow of my tears. 
The billows that guarded my seagirt path 

Carried my Lord on their crest; 
When I dwell on the days of my wilderness march, 
I can lean on his love for the rest." 

—Anna Shipton. 

7 



98 The Life of Loye. 

SIGNS OF SPIKITUAL PKOGKESS. 

There are many unequivocal evidences that 
the soul is in a healthy condition, and a con- 
siderable variety of statement on this matter is 
undoubtedly possible. Hence, without claiming 
that the tokens which follow are exhaustive, or 
even necessarily the absolute best, we submit 
them as helpful to a right estimation of our 
spiritual gains. 

1. A growing sense of God. Of the wicked the 
psalmist says (x, 4), "God is not in all his 
thoughts;" that is, God is nothing to him, not 
a single one of his thoughts is directed toward 
the unseen Majesty. Concerning one at the 
furthest remove from this, a friend bore testi- 
mony some years ago that "the greatest force 
in the life of George Bowen, the white saint of 
India, was the complete and permanent realiza- 
tion of the actual, personal presence of the 
Savior, a vivid sense of his intimate nearness, 
as one to be spoken to and walked with; this 
mental habit grew by cultivation to be a great 
life power with him." Between these two ex- 
tremes—God in no thought, God in all thoughts 



The Life oe Love. 99 

— lie all conceivable shades of difference. And 
scarce any test of our advancement toward per- 
fect purity is fitter or closer than this : How con- 
stantly, how clearly do I see God? He who 
walks before him, in the fullest meaning of the 
words, without cessation or obscuration, is prop- 
erly called perfect. That realized presence con- 
stitutes heaven. And the faith which makes the 
presence real, unveiling the invisible, penetrating 
the many thick disguises in which, to try us, he 
wraps himself, is the formative principle of the 
Christian life, the victory which overcomes what- 
ever stands in the way of continual advance. Ac- 
cording to our faith is our standing. At this 
point, therefore, should be careful examination, 
and we should not be satisfied unless we can 
give an unhesitating affirmative answer to the in- 
quiry, Do I perceive God in all the events of 
daily life, in his Word and his works, in provi- 
dence and in nature, more quickly and joyfully 
than I used to do ? 

2. Warmer devotion to Christ. We are all 
aware what a great difference there is among 
Christians in this particular. While some have 
the closest personal friendship for the Savior, 



100 The Life of Love. 

with others there is very little of this feeling. 
To the latter he is simply a great teacher, a spot- 
less example, a martyr to the truth, a marvelous 
religious leader who has deserved wondrously well 
of the world. Their individual obligation to him 
is of a shadowy sort, and scarcely other than that 
which loosely binds them to any hero or philos- 
opher whose life they admire and whose words 
have thrilled them. Not so with the devotee. 
It is not admiration simply with him, but adora- 
tion. He can find no terms of endearment strong 
enough to express his love. Words altogether 
fail, nor do ordinary deeds suffice. He longs for 
something quite out of the common to show what 
he feels. He understands how it was with Mary 
of Bethany when she had to break the flask of 
alabaster. Commandments are not called for. 
The slightest wish of Jesus, however indicated, 
is to him the strongest of laws. He would gladly 
die the worst of deaths to give him the least 
of pleasures. Such language may not find yet full 
echo in our hearts, and Faber's impassioned verse 
may seem to us overwrought. But can we com- 
prehend it better than once we did? Is this 
attitude of the hot lovers of the Lord more in- 



The Life of Love. 101 

telligible to us than it used to be? Have we 
more of a response to it in our soul ? If so, there 
has been growth. 

S. Lessened attachment to the world. This item 
perhaps hardly needs statement, since it is really 
contained in the matter just mentioned. The 
spirit of the world and the spirit of Jesus are 
directly contrary the one to the other. He who 
is hot toward Jesus will be cold toward the world, 
and vice versa. This is the reason for the clear 
command, "Come out and be separate." Between 
two such opposing forces there must be a de- 
liberate and final choice. Both can not be su- 
preme in the soul. Therefore, in proportion as 
this waxes, that must wane. The two tests are 
practically identical. But it is well to apply both, 
since each checks the other, and at the mouth 
of two witnesses conviction is confirmed. How 
is it, then, with us as to worldly pleasures ? How 
is it as to the maxims most current in the marts 
of trade ? Do we find that our tastes have under- 
gone a revolution, that our ideas are not what 
they were in other days? If so, we may well 
be of good courage. Perhaps the alteration in 
these points is not yet as complete as we be- 



102 The Life of Love. 

lieve it should be, judging from the best models ; 
but if we are plainly on the way to these heights 
of excellence, if the world — its standards, its 
opinions, its attractions — is far less to us than 
formerly, we are on the upgrade, and may heartily 
thank God. 

4. Greater unselfishness. This, too, may be 
fairly reckoned a part of increased Christlikeness. 
Love to others will grow with love to Jesus. He 
who gets near to him will get near to the suf- 
fering and the toiling masses on whom the Savior 
looked with such compassion, and he will be un- 
able to spend so largely on himself. Self will no 
longer be the center of his efforts, the shrine of 
his worship, the matter of largest importance. 
To do good to those most needy will seem to 
him of more consequence than ministering to his 
own enhanced comfort. He will find his deepest 
joys in enlarged spheres of usefulness. He will 
think more and more of the work to be done, 
less and less of added prominence or emoluments 
for the worker. Thus a peculiar beauty, as well 
as a peculiar delight — the beauty of the Lord 
who gives unceasingly, and the delight of dis- 
interested beneficence— will attach themselves 



The Life of Love. 103 

very firmly to him, and he will know here on 
earth much of the best bliss of heaven. 

5. Increased power to overcome temptation. The 
test of temptation is extremely practical, and 
more readily applied perhaps than any other; for 
temptations come all the while, and our treat- 
ment of them greatly varies. There are times 
when we are distinctly conscious that the evil 
one has not touched us; that he has met only 
fierce and prompt repulsion; that he has been 
utterly foiled. There are other times when we 
are by no means so sure but that he has gained 
some slight advantage, found admission for a 
season at some unguarded point, prevailed in a 
small degree at least to disturb our purity or 
peace. In proportion to the readiness with which 
we apprehend his presence, however speciously 
cloaked, and the strength with which we say no 
to his most plausible or potential allurements, 
our progress toward perfect holiness is accurately 
measured. We ought to be getting each week 
better and better acquainted with his devices, and 
understanding more fully how to overcome. We 
ought also to be acquiring a larger portion of 
strength in the superior ranges of our being, the 



104 The Life oe Loye. 

lower appetites and passions subsiding more and 
more to the place of complete subordination orig- 
inally designed for them; thus the true equilib- 
rium being restored, and the disorder or dis- 
tortion produced by sin rectified, the tempter loses 
his advantage, and it becomes natural to do right. 
Not yet probably do any of us find this state 
fully attained. But are we drawing daily nearer ? 
If not, something is wrong. 

6. A keener interest in heaven. This seems to 
us a legitimate sign of progress. The worldling 
cares nothing for that better country, for it holds 
naught on which his heart is set. But they who 
are "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" are 
seeking the "city which hath foundations," and 
which God hath especially prepared for them. 
They have thought so much about it that they 
see it in vision, their faith makes it real. Their 
Savior is there plainly revealed, as here he can 
not be, and the spirits of the just made perfect 
reign there in cloudless day, sin gone, death con- 
quered, purity and peace without end. It is the 
center of all attraction to the saint, his eternal 
home, his incomparable reward. They who are 
young in the Christian life, who are babes, still 



The Life of Love. 105 

in part carnal, do not dwell much on the pros- 
pect of heaven. The earth has still a good deal 
of attraction for them, and is very vivid in their 
eyes. But as they gradually shake off its ties, 
and draw nearer in time as well as in fitness to 
the future world, the latter lays hold of them, 
and gravitation begins to pull that way. Happy 
they who are homesick for heaven. In due time 
they shall arrive. Meanwhile let them cultivate 
the desires that stretch upward, and rejoice as 
they find their wishes more and more tending 
that way. 

WALKING BEFOEE GOD. 

How shall we walk before God ? With habit- 
ual reverence, counting every place holy ground, 
and looking for visible manifestations of his pres- 
ence at all times. With habitual vigilance, wake- 
ful, watchful, earnest, both in private and pub- 
lic, remembering what enemies are round about 
us, as well as who it is that seeth us with all- 
searching eye. With habitual gladness, joying in 
the loveliness of his character, the freedom of 
access he permits, the abounding grace he be- 



106 The Life of Love. 

stows, the countless gifts of his hand, and the 
bliss of his presence. With habitual consecration, 
the whole heart devoted to him, the whole life 
a perpetual sacrifice. Surely this is the true, 
normal, Christian life. He who is not pursuing 
it can not be fully pleasing in His holy sight. 

WOKDLESS COMMUNION. 

Is it not true that the length of the dis- 
course indicates the distance of thought between 
the speaker and the hearer? That is to say, in 
proportion to the perf ectness of the understand- 
ing between two friends, words of explanation 
are not needed; though words of pleasant fel- 
lowship will, of course, still be in order, and brief 
consultations will be called for. This explains 
why some advanced Christians find themselves 
spending less time than formerly in formal or 
stated prayer. As they draw nearer heaven in 
point of progress, they find heaven's special occu- 
pation, praise, more congenial to them than 
petition. Their intercourse with God is con- 
tinual. So perfect is their understanding with 
him that thought passes freely, and but few words 



The Life oe Loye. 107 

are needful. Their wills are in such complete 
harmony with his that they feel no wish to plead 
for that which it is not his pleasure to bestow. 
The late William Arnot tells us, in his diary, 
that, as he grew older, he grew more brief and 
simple in his closet devotions. He pithily says, 
"I suppose there are really two kinds of brevity 
in prayer — one because you are far off, and one 
because you are far in" So no one can judge 
for another as to precisely how much time that 
other needs to spend on his knees. Nor can we 
safely take the example of any one else as an 
absolute guide in our own case. Many things 
need to be considered — our household duties, our 
business engagements, our special perplexities, our 
mastery of perpetual prayer. We are not bound 
always to spend just so much time in the exer- 
cise ; nor need we write ourselves down delinquent 
if we can not pass whole hours in special suppli- 
cation, like some one we have read about. There 
will come occasions in the lives of all for long 
tarrying before God. But when such a proceed- 
ing meets no real demand of our spiritual na- 
ture, we need not feel obligated to it. "Strength 
in prayer is better than length in prayer." 



108 The Life of Love. 

LOVING MEN. 

It is not enough for ministers, or lay laborers, 
to have their hearts in their work; they must 
have their hearts in the people. The distinction 
is not a mere verbal or idle one. It touches that 
which is fundamental to the best success. The 
work may interest us because it is ours, and 
we are to be personally gainers by doing it well. 
But unless the people really interest us, we can 
not effectively reach their hearts. To persuade 
men we must love them. Then all else readily 
follows. 

There is the same vital difference between 
seeking to please people and seeking to give them 
pleasure; the former has a touch of selfishness 
in it, from which the latter is free. It is one 
thing for a Sunday-school teacher to occupy the 
time, and another thing to occupy the scholars. 
A minister may be a good sermonizer, and yet 
by no means a good preacher of the gospel; he 
who has a mind to work may accomplish the 
one, but only he who has a heart to love can 
effect the other. 



The Life of Loye. 109 

CHKISTIAN KECKEATION. 

The two words belong together, The Chris- 
tian not only may, but must, have suitable 
recreation. It is when he takes it in the way of 
the world rather than in the way of the Lord 
that he gets into trouble. There are certain 
things which he can not do, certain places where 
he can not go, without harm to his spiritual life 
and loss of religious influence. The world thor- 
oughly understands that religion demands a dif- 
ference in the life, and that the choice of a man's 
pleasures is an excellent indication of his char- 
acter, far better than any amount of profession. 
They will never respect a man who calls him- 
self a follower of Christ and refuses to deny 
himself those diversions where the world gives 
the law, where prayer would be manifestly out 
of place, and the pleasures of the passing hour 
are exclusively considered. Can such a man re- 
spect himself? 

Eecreation is good when it recreates; when 
it refreshes mind and body; when it can be taken 
without conscious relaxation of the bonds of 
Christian obligation; when it comes plainly in 



110 The Life of Love. 

as an essential part of the service of God, not 
making undue draughts on either time or money, 
or leading into dangerous associations or en- 
couraging pernicious tendencies. It is evil when 
it violates any of these requirements. There is 
more to be thought of in this matter, more at 
stake, than many, especially in youthful years, 
are apt to consider. Circumstances make a great 
difference. Some things are permissible in one 
place, but not in another. Some are harmful 
to one person, but not to another. The view- 
point changes in different generations and differ- 
ent circles of society. 

But it is always wrong to do those things 
which we have good reason to feel would not be 
pleasing to Christ, about which we at least have 
serious doubts whether he would approve, for it 
is our duty always to study his example and live 
in close communion with him. It is always wrong 
to do those things which would hinder our spirit- 
ual development or injure our religious life. It 
is far better to miss here and there a possibly 
permitted pleasure than to cripple our Christian 
growth or bring a cloud over the sky of our com- 
munion with him whom our soul supremely de- 



The Life of Loye. Ill 

sires and adores. It is always wrong to do those 
things which would detract from our Christian 
influence and become a stumbling-block in the 
path of the weak, — those things which naturally 
lead, and in thousands of cases have led, to ways 
of dissipation, frivolity, and f orgetfulness of God. 
Why should we trifle with these dangers, or 
try how much poison we can eat without being 
killed? There is true, healthful, Christian 
recreation, wherein the bow can be unbent, and 
we can have respite from toil within the limits 
of Christian decorum, and without any real cessa- 
tion of Christian work. Such only can be taken 
with real satisfaction or with healthful results 
in the long run. Each for himself must decide 
what they are and where he can find them. 
Blessed is he that condemneth not himself in 
that which he alloweth, and still more blessed 
he that can so order his conduct as not to be 
condemned by the fair-minded portion of "those 
that are without," and who are ever watching 
most closely to find something in the lives of 
Church members that will serve to neutralize the 
reproach which their consistent example ever 
gives. 



112 The Life oe Loye. 

EELIGIOUS WOOL-GATHEEING. 

Eeligious wool-gathering is one thing, and 
practical religious progress is quite another. It 
is easy to indulge the imagination in picturing 
heights of goodness we would like to attain and 
painting high ideals. It is not easy to take, one 
after another, the precise steps that lie between 
us and that ideal. We must not only want great 
goodness, we must want it enough to get it. Idle 
wishes are both foolish and useless. Our desire 
for a thing is genuine when we put forth the 
effort necessary to acquire it. He who sings 
"Nearer, my God, to thee/' and then refuses the 
cross which alone will lift him, has deceived him- 
self with an empty word. If we really want to 
be better, we will be. There is nothing to hinder 
the resolute soul. Very many impose upon them- 
selves with some cant form of speech whose mean- 
ing they have not stopped to examine. All things 
are possible to him who thinks, feels, believes, 
and acts. 

"Not in the clamor of the crowded street, 
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, 
But in ourselves are triumph and defeat." 

—Longfellow. 



The Life of Loye. 113 



IS THE LINE CLEAE? 

When* there is some business of great urgency, 
some need for swiftest communication between 
two points, the line is cleared from end to end, 
and the train that is charged with the imperative 
message has absolute right of way. Thus it was 
when Mrs. Garfield was summoned to her hus- 
band's death-bed. Thus it is when some great 
general, or some picked body of troops, is called 
to the place of imminent National peril. The 
right of way belongs to the thing that for the 
moment is of supreme importance. But there 
is one thing that at all moments is of supreme 
importance to the truly Christian heart; it is 
the will of God. This must always have the right 
of way. All other things whatsoever, no matter 
how dear to the natural man, must stand aside 
and make room when that appears. Otherwise 
there will be a collision fraught with much pain 
and loss. The will of God can not stop to give 
place to aught else. It is the only thing really 
important, or valuable, or desirable in the whole 
universe. The loyal soul will be ever on the 
8 



114 The Life oe Love. 

watch to detect the first signs of its approach, 
and to see that it has the line clear for unob- 
structed progress. 

LOVE TO JESUS— HOW MUCH? 

There is such a thing as deep, burning, all- 
consuming love to the Savior. Not all, even of 
the very good, have it. The goodness of many 
proceeds from other motives, excellent in their 
way, but not imparting the same flavor. Love- 
inspired piety is the best, the sweetest, least easily 
tired, most effective with others. How can this 
strong affection be procured? Only by a due 
combination of the meditative and the active 
methods. Neither alone will give it. We shall 
love Jesus in proportion as we become closely 
acquainted with him through prolonged study; 
and also in proportion as we toil and suffer in 
his behalf. Love will prompt both to contempla- 
tion and sacrifice, and will be greatly deepened 
thereby. It is good to apply tests to ourselves 
as to how much we love him. Little services may 
be inspired by large devotion; and the largest 
labor will not be withheld if the beloved can thus 



The Life oe Loye. 115 

be better pleased. Whatever destroys self makes 
place for love. The latter's faintness is due 
mainly to the former's strength. 

HOLINESS TAKES TIME. 

Theke is a deep truth beneath the line of 
the familiar hymn which counsels us to "Take 
time to be holy." A holy life is the result of 
deliberate effort and ceaseless watching. It does 
not come into maturity unless we take time for 
its culture. It is this very sphere of the re- 
ligious life that the modern business stress in- 
vades with such disaster. We are busy, and we 
simply do not take time to be holy. It takes 
more real strength to pray than it does to per- 
form physical toil. The reason why people do 
not pray when they are tired is because they can 
not; their strength is exhausted. It takes vital 
force to study the Bible and to reflect on religious 
themes. And yet this is generally reserved to 
the close of the day, when we are too much ex- 
hausted for the task. And so it soon falls into 
disuse. 

We may as well recognize, therefore, at the 



116 The Life of Loye. 

beginning that it takes strength and time to at- 
tain a holy life. It is a matter of downright and 
persistent earnestness. It is true that a holy life 
is the result also of relationship and of absorp- 
tion. Both the active struggle and the passive, 
receptive mood are necessary. It is the first of 
these that we tend most to neglect. But we must 
arouse ourselves; holiness means struggle; holi- 
ness takes time. 



LOVE DEVELOPED BY EXPKESSION. 

It is a good rule to let no day pass in which 
we do not do something distinctly in Jesus's name, 
for his sake, as his representative. There is a 
difference between doing a thing because it is 
right and doing the same thing out of love to 
the blessed Lord. The latter motive puts a sweet- 
ness into the action that transfigures it. Of price- 
less worth is the acquirement of this habit; and 
it is not to be gained easily or at once. Hence 
we say begin by resolving to do at least one 
thing a day in this manner. See how very much 
of love can be put forth in it and expressed by 



The Life of Love. 117 

it. Thus will love grow; and thus the custom 
will be confirmed until gradually it shall become 
easy and cover the whole life. 



THE SECEET OF SAINTLINESS. 

Fletcher's pre-eminence in piety among the 
fathers and founders of Methodism has been uni- 
versally acknowledged. Wise is it, then, for us 
to note some of the steps by which he reached 
those heights of grace so seldom trod. There is 
still in existence a little book, which has been 
held in safe and reverent keeping for more than 
a century past, and is still as he left it. Its pages 
are worn by his touch. It was his closet com- 
panion, written by his own hand. With its medi- 
tations and rules he nourished his soul in secret. 
With its spiritual exercises and disciplinary regu- 
lations, its tests and standards of self-examina- 
tion, he sought to perfect himself in the love 
of God and in the minutest details of character 
and conduct. One feels, as he looks into this 
little manual of devotion which was so dear to 
the saint, that he is almost watching the process 



118 The Life of Love. 

by which that saintliness was evolved. The lovely 
growth of goodness had at its root the patient 
discipline here outlined and portrayed. Here is 
the workshop from which the finished product 
was at last brought forth. Here is revealed much 
of the way in which Fletcher's inmost life — a 
life that for a generation was a marvel to all be- 
holders — was carefully cultivated. 

This manual — the most vital and precious of 
all the Fletcher relics, because disclosing more 
directly than any other the processes of his in- 
terior life, the spirit and method of his daily 
devotions — is a small, square book, strongly 
bound in leather, containing about two hundred 
closely-written pages. It was prepared when 
he was about twenty-seven years of age, and con- 
tains topically-arranged passages of Scripture, 
selections from Charles Wesley's hymns, and a 
great variety of resolutions, meditations, and pre- 
cepts, written in Greek, Latin, French, and 
English. A few extracts will give a taste of the 
contents : 

"Do not surrender thyself to any joy." 
"Keceive afflictions as the best guides to per- 
fection." 



The Life oe Love. 119 

"Kemember always the presence of God." 
"Kenounce thyself in all that can hinder thy 
union with God." 

"Kejoice always in the will of God." 
"Beware of relaxing and of impatience." 
"Always speak gently." 

On such points as these he trained himself, 
and with conspicuous success, for his whole heart 
was in it; no common degrees of grace could 
satisfy his desire. It was in this way he attained 
that superlative degree of excellence which led 
Wesley and all others who knew him most in- 
timately to declare that no age or country had 
produced a man more thoroughly consecrated in 
heart and life. The way is still open. Why 
should we not follow it ? There is no short cut, 
no royal road, to this sort of attainment. Noth- 
ing but the most painstaking spiritual culture 
will produce these finished effects. He who is 
willing to take the steps can reach the results. 
Let there be more of these little books written 
out. Each must write one for himself. 

"Greatly begin! though thou have time 
But for a line, be that sublime; 
Not failure, but low aim, is crime." 

—J. R. Lowell. 



120 The Life of Love. 



"FOE HIS NAME'S SAKE." 

There is great power and sweetness in this 
expression which occurs so frequently in the 
Bible. It gives a glimpse of the spontaneous 
goodness of God. It is out of the great fullness 
of his loving heart, because he is intrinsically 
kind, that he does kind things; not because he 
is persuaded into it, or feels that he must, but 
because he longs to. It is for his own nature's 
sake, so noble and rich and beautiful is it. As 
when a musician sits down to an instrument, not 
that he may please a listening throng, but that 
he may pour forth his own soul in this way most 
natural to him, so God, because of what he is, 
for his own sake, to satisfy himself, is perpetually 
pouring out benefits upon the unthankful and the 
evil, looking for nothing again. Are we truly 
his children ? Then this same delightful impulse 
will rule our breast, this same beautiful bird of 
love will sing most sweetly within our soul. 

"How wretched is the man, with honors crowned, 
Who, having not the one thing needful found, 
Dies, known to all, but to himself unknown!" 

— H. W. Longfellow. 



The Life oe Loye. 121 



CRAB-TREE CHRISTIANS. 

Some there are, presumably on the way to 
heaven, and whom we shall perhaps be happy to 
associate with there, that we are very glad to 
get rid of from the earth. There is no complaint 
when they die. Everybody is willing, and more 
than willing, that they should be promoted, trans- 
ferred to the better land. They have a vast 
amount of vinegar mixed with their disposition. 
They conceive it to be their duty to set their 
faces like a flint against about everything that 
goes on in this degenerate age. Nothing suits 
them in Church or State. They can not defend 
religion without getting into a rage. They are 
so sour that people's teeth are set on edge at 
the very sight of them. How sadly they misrepre- 
sent and dishonor the Master at the very time 
they claim to be about the only ones that know 
him! Whatever else the Christian lacks, sweet 
reasonableness and winsomeness must not be 
wanting. However cantankerous the natural dis- 
position, there is ample provision for its change 
into something good to live with. 



122 The Life oe Loye. 

FOUK WAYS WITH TKOUBLE. 

As to trouble, men are four. Number one is 
overwhelmed, goes down beneath the waves, and 
rises not again. Number two just manages to 
keep his head above water; but what a time he 
has of it ! how loud and strong his lamentations ! 
what a pitiful object! Number three swims 
easily out and does not mind it much; he gets 
wet, but he is a philosopher, and soon dries him- 
self, making no fuss about it nor coming to any 
harm. Number four feels the force of the flood 
as much as the other three, but he is so encased 
in rubber that the stream only tosses him forward 
on his way, and he exults at the strange means 
God has taken to promote his progress. Defeat, 
devastation, peace, triumph — which will we have? 
The Almighty is able to make his children vic- 
torious over all their trials, turning these into 
means of grace for which hearty thanks can most 
fitly be given. It is possible not merely to bear 
them with patience and resignation, but to exult 
at the glorious results therein wrought. 



The Life of Love. 123 

BOTTLE, WELL, KIVEE. 

It has been suggested that these three words 
quite aptly designate three classes of Christians. 
There are those who seem to have but "a bottle 
of water," such as Abraham gave to Hagar when 
she wandered in the wilderness and was much dis- 
tressed. There are those whose eyes have been 
opened to see the "well of water," and in whom 
the water has "become," as Christ says, "a well 
springing up." Happy they who possess this un- 
failing fountain to supply their needs ! But there 
is yet something more, even that which shall over- 
pass all local bounds, and bear forth gladness 
far and wide, refreshing, vivifying, fructifying. 
For Jesus says, again, that from the believer 
"shall flow rivers of living water," by which he 
referred to the Spirit when in his largest, fullest 
abundance he has taken the most complete pos- 
session of the soul. The Spirit-filled life will 
speedily make itself felt. The important ques- 
tion is how far our family, our neighborhood, 
our Church, are being refreshed by us. Where 
are the "rivers of living water" that we should 
be giving forth ? 



124 The Life of Love. 

THE DIVINE PKESENCE. 

Nothing can be of greater practical impor- 
tance to every Christian than the constant real- 
ization of the Divine Presence. It is worth every 
effort. It is, as much as any one thing can be, 
the key to the position, the guarantee of a sacred 
life. An increasing appreciation of this truth is 
shown in the large emphasis which, for a few 
years past, has been put upon the doctrine of the 
Holy Spirit. Is not this simply another form 
of the same fact ? The Holy Spirit is the present 
God, the God who operates most immediately 
and directly upon the human heart, the God of 
the present dispensation or age. Faith also — 
what is that but the sense of God's presence, the 
realization of unseen things, the close touch with 
the eternal, the apprehension of Deity? Hence 
to say of a person he is "full of faith and the 
Holy Ghost," is only another way of saying that 
he keeps God ever before his eyes; God is at his 
right hand, so that he is not moved by mundane 
things. In that Presence is fullness of joy, com- 
pleteness of liberty, abundance of rest. 



The Life of Love. 125 

MEASUKB FOR MEASURE. 

Love begets love. Kindness is won by kind- 
ness. It is very foolish for us to complain that 
nobody cares for us; such complaint is self -im- 
peachment. The proper inference from it is that 
we have not cared much for others. Certainly, 
in nine cases out of ten, people are themselves 
to blame when they are not well treated. This 
is a matter mostly in our own hands. As a rule 
we get all the attention and courtesy and con- 
sideration that we in any way deserve. If any 
one claims otherwise, the burden of proof is on 
him, and he will find it a difficult task to persuade 
the impartial, unsympathetic public that he has 
been harshly used. 

We wait for others to love us, and seek us, 
and begin to be good to us, when there is really 
no sufficient reason for them to begin. Unselfish- 
ness on our part is lacking, yet we have much 
to say about the selfishness of others. We count 
it extremely hard when we enter a new place 
that folks do not call on us or welcome us, yet 
we have never been in the habit of taking any 
pains about strangers. If we do not find sun- 



126 The Life of Love. 

shine where we go, it is chiefly because we do 
not carry it with us. If men do not smile at 
our coming, it is because there is no smile on 
our face. People can have love who earnestly 
desire it and really deserve it. 

PEACTICAL THOUGHTS FOE SPIKITUAL 
MINDS. 

Everything which befalls us comes from God 
for our good; therefore, whatever comes, keep 
on smiling. 

Disquiet, discouragement, and disappointment 
spring from self, and are displeasing to God; 
therefore, discard them. 

It is well to look to the littles; what to many 
seem unprofitable niceties of conduct become im- 
portant to the soul that covets the closest pos- 
sible walk with God. 

The mind of Christ was to do the will of 
God; hence to be armed with that mind is to be 
supremely devoted to that will. 

The man who walks by faith takes no strolls 
through the land of fretf ulness. 

To be humble is to be thankful, for small 



The Life of Love. 127 

mercies will be greatly prized; to be thankful 
is to be happy, for warm gratitude and a cold, 
lumpish heart go not together; to be happy is 
what all men seek for, most of them in vain; 
therefore, take low views of your own claims and 
merits. 

God's faithfulness can always be counted on; 
we may be quite sure that we can trust him. 

Contentment is better than riches. Instead 
of striving so hard, therefore, to be rich, learn 
to be contented; learn, that is, to know God; 
he that knows him will love to obey him and 
will be satisfied with his arrangements. 

The only thing anywhere desirable or valuable 
is God's will, and that comes to us every mo- 
ment, saying, "Wilt thou be wise and accept me, 
or wilt thou be a fool and reject me?" 

Entire Christlikeness is the only standard 
which the true Christian can set before him, and, 
although he may not hope to reach it in this 
life, he must steadily approximate it. 

Unregulated, inordinate, self-centered, de- 
sires furnish the groundwork for all our tempta- 
tions; to desire only God and what he chooses 
to give is the only path to peace. 



128 The Life of Love. 

True faith is free from fanaticism, true hope 
from hallucination, and true love from the laxity 
that is careless as to righteousness. 

Whether we are known or unknown, prom- 
inent or obscure, useful on a large scale or a 
small, is God's affair; faithfulness to opportunity 
and duty is our part. 

If the will of God is to us a rack or a prison- 
house, instead of being a home and a place of 
rest, we do not yet really know what true re- 
ligion is. 

Since the measure of our love to others is 
the measure of our power to do them good, or 
more nearly so than anything else, we must cul- 
tivate and increase this love by all means within 
our reach. 

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly; 
therefore, our troubles must depart when our 
wills are in line with God's, for we shall do his 
behests with cheerfulness. 

That religion resides in the will rather than 
in the emotions can not be too often reiterated; 
to watch our choices is more important than to 
watch our feelings. 

The only way to be happy, in spite of the 



The Life oe Loye. 129 

sad facts around us, is to believe thoroughly that 
God knows what he is about, and that eternal 
glory is being worked out by temporal gloom. 

The Divine Father permits no evil to touch 
his children, except it be necessary for the pro- 
duction of some greater good, and that can not 
properly be called an evil; hence, complaint at 
any occurrence is a manifest sign of egregious 
folly. 

He who has none to please but Jesus, whom 
he supremely loves, is the truly independent man. 

If faith is to us victory, then we can count 
every foe, whether world, flesh, or devil, as al- 
ready conquered by Christ; and we, secure in 
him, have only to repel the assaults made upon 
our position. 

God's assisting blows — his afflictive provi- 
dences — are indispensable to our complete sepa- 
ration from creature trust. 

Anxiety always means lack of trust; by this 
test, am I trusting? 

Contradiction and disputation are rarely of 

the Lord; they are dangerous disturbers of peace; 

a calm statement of truth as we see it, or a 

humble inquiry after light as some one else sees 

9 



130 The Life oe Love. 

it, is always in order; more than this cometh 
of evil. 

Whoever is much concerned as to what "they 
say" puts his peace of mind at the disposal of 
gossips and fools. 

We belong to Jesus, and he belongs to us; 
that is sufficient cause for perpetual hallelujahs. 

To cultivate ejaculatory prayer by various de- 
vices, and with unmeasured persistence, is one 
of the best means for increasing our fellowship 
with the Father; so is the habit of singing de- 
vout songs when we are alone. 

Communion with Jesus over common things 
gives a reality and a gladness to daily life that 
nothing else can. 

He who does not talk about Jesus simply, 
naturally, lovingly, wherever there is any chance 
that it will be understood, may well question 
whether he loves his Lord as much as he ought, 
and may be quite certain that he has missed many 
opportunities of doing much good. 

Not every one knows that true happiness 
comes from decreasing our wants, rather than 
adding to our possessions; it is as easy to in- 
crease the value of the fraction of life by lessen- 



The Life oe Love. 131 

ing the denominator as by augmenting the 
numerator. 

Shun shams and shibboleths. A genuine man 
longs to get at the truth of things in the most 
direct manner. It is senseless to drone over a 
set of empty phrases that have no real thought 
behind them, simply because they once contained 
a meaning and are now strictly orthodox. Let 
a man speak his mind in the clearest, simplest 
terms he can command, and fearlessly forswear 
the outworn absurdities and inanities of bygone 
ages. Have done with cant. 

It is as foolish to try to trust God as it is 
to try to breathe. It is impossible to distrust 
him when we really know him. Hence the thing 
is to try to know him, and the rest will follow. 
If a person finds difficulty about trusting, it is 
a sure proof that he is not in right relationship 
with God; that he has no proper apprehension 
of his nature. Let him give up his sin and self- 
will, and there will be no further trouble. 

There should be perpetual progress in purity, 
according to the expressive figure of Paul, "But 
we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the 
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 



132 The Life op Love. 

image from glory to glory " Let the transforma- 
tion go on without stopping. 

Indifference is either contemptible or sublime, 
according to the motives from which it proceeds 
and the objects it covers. It has the former 
character when it arises from indolence of mind 
or body; also when it refers to things of highest 
importance. But it is sublime when it springs 
from spiritual-mindedness and is exercised con- 
cerning matters which, though great in the 
world's estimation, are really of no true value. 

Eeligion must be a business; every true Chris- 
tian does what he ought whether he likes it or 
not, just as a genuine business man does what 
he can, or what he finds profitable, not simply 
what he likes. 

Be ingenious in making excuses for others, 
cultivating kind thoughts about them, and giv- 
ing them credit for the best motives; but call 
yourself to a strict account for all departures 
from the perfect way, remembering that, where 
so much is given, much will be required. 

Give at least as much thought to the positive 
as to the negative side of the Christian life; to 
the acquisition of virtue as to deliverance from 



The Life of Love. 133 

vice; to being filled with the Spirit as to being 
freed from sin; the former is the quickest path 
to the latter. 

Never take offense; it is a greater sin than 
to give it, and is a clear manifestation of pride; 
be not suspicious or sensitive ; keep always in good 
humor, believing that you are loved and honored 
as much as you deserve. 

Not to be vexed with one's self, or anxious 
about spiritual progress, or troubled at occasional 
defeats, and yet to be unweariedly pressing on 
with a cheerful, immovable determination to gain 
the loftiest heights, is true wisdom. 

He is truly humble who is perfectly willing 
to be rated precisely as he deserves, who is sober- 
minded, with a calm, temperate, dispassionate 
measurement of his own powers. 

To push aside the honors and emoluments of 
the world, accepting cheerfully the painful, diffi- 
cult things that have been laid upon us as duties, 
glad to do and not at all solicitous about hav- 
ing credit for the thing done, is the mark of a 
noble mind. 

Impatience is not a thing to be trifled with; 
its roots go deep, it involves a want of submission 



134 The Life of Love. 

to God and a lack of love to others; hence, every 
increase of brotherly affection or devotion to the 
Divine will shows itself necessarily in greater 
patience. Patience is the opposite of intolerance, 
of complaint, and of hurry; it may be applied to 
opinions, to pains, and to performances. Not 
until we are perfect and entire, wanting nothing, 
is this grace perfected. 

It is nobler to turn to God in the hour of 
joy than in the hour of sorrow; but the perfect 
man can not really be said to turn to God ever, 
because he never turns from him, but remains 
perpetually in his presence, seeing his hand in 
everything, and finding in all a cause for grati- 
tude and delight. 

Nothing is of such consequence or such com- 
prehensiveness as love; nothing is so strong, so 
sweet, so full of power and peace; it magnifies 
the smallest gift, and dignifies the most insig- 
nificant task; it conquers the most obdurate, and 
binds together the most dissimilar. Be it then 
our chief business to love more fully, more con- 
stantly, more widely, more deeply. 

Being must precede doing; a single word 
spoken, a single deed done in the name — that is, 



The Life of Loye. 135 

in the very spirit — of the Lord Jesus, by a soul 
in constant communion with him, is worth, for 
spiritual results, a thousand words and deeds not 
thus inspired. 

To be thoroughgoing, whole-hearted, out-and- 
out in our piety, to be absolutely depended on, 
never known to compromise with evil or make 
conditions in the service of God, faltering not in 
allegiance, found ever in the forefront of duty, 
giving God the benefit of the doubt, faithful, 
stanch, steadfast, loyal, would not be considered 
a very high state of grace, but for the sad fact 
that so few continuously live in it. 

To please men is not so important as to profit 
them. To please men in general is less im- 
portant than to please good men. To please men 
of any kind must always be subordinate to pleas- 
ing God. 

No Christian should leave his chamber in the 
morning without a formal renewal of his covenant 
with Jesus, and a fresh determination to spend 
the day wholly with God. Let him spend a few 
moments, at least, planning how he can lift up 
Christ and put down self more effectually than 
ever before. 



136 The Life of Love. 

We should dare to seem as good as we are, 
as well as dread to be accounted better than we 
are. Courage is needed for the one no less than 
genuine humility for the other. Our example 
must be made to tell for as much as possible. 

Be pliable where no principle is involved. 
Yield readily to the wishes of others in regard 
to the little arrangements of daily life. If we 
are snappish and obstinate and disagreeable and 
domineering, our prayer-meeting testimonies as 
to perfect love will be a laughing-stock to those 
who know us. 

There should be more specialization in favor 
of spiritualization. Other things must be sacri- 
ficed that the one thing, closest fellowship with 
God, may have unobstructed right of way. 

There is no Bible passage which says "Groan 
in the Lord always," and yet we should suppose 
so from the way in which some people live, es- 
teeming it apparently a sacred duty to be gloomy 
and counting it presumption to be glad. There 
is certainly a more excellent way. 

When Christians meet, they should, much 
of tener than they do, ask after each other's spirit- 
ual health and experience in divine things; the 



The Life oe Loye. 137 

result would be great refreshment of soul and 
enlargement of heart. 

To acquiesce in things disagreeable, to pocket 
affronts, to be smilingly unconscious of slights, 
to be blind of one eye and deaf in one ear, is 
the only path to permanent peace in this weari- 
some world. 

Precipitation and agitation, disquiet and dis- 
turbance, do not sit well on the child of God; 
they suggest an over-fondness for one's own way; 
they smack of artfulness. A sweet tranquillity, 
an atmosphere of patience and gentleness, is 
much more becoming. 

The Christian must be a pipe, open at both 
ends, to receive from Christ and to give forth 
to the world. It is his business to pass on the 
quickening draught to the thirsty lips that wait 
for it; in other words, to run and tell every good 
thing that he hears from God. 

There is no conflict between contentment and 
aspiration. The former does not mean indolence 
or indifference. The latter does not mean worry, 
or fidget, or fuss. The former has reference 
chiefly to what we have, the latter to what we are. 

Sobriety, in the Bible sense, does not mean 



138 The Life oe Loye. 

stupidity or dullness. It is opposed to levity 
rather than to vivacity. There is nothing in- 
compatible between sober-mindedness and cheer- 
fulness or rejoicing evermore. 

Failure of the most absolute kind is his who 
deliberately turns his back on a duty clearly 
shown, or lowers his standard that he may not 
be inconvenienced by its strictness. 

Few things are at once so manifestly foolish 
and so plainly sinful as indulgence in that pain- 
ful uneasiness or disturbance of mind with refer- 
ence to something that we wish or fear, which 
goes by the name of anxiety. Proper forethought 
and prudent planning have no necessary connec- 
tion with worry. 

It is not a good sign when about all our inter- 
course with God is that of beggars for personal 
favors. To employ ten minutes in talking with 
God about our own affairs, and one minute or less 
to the interests of all the world beside, is a kind 
of selfishness that does not comport with great 
nearness to Jesus. 

There is a danger of prematurely concluding 
that the crucifixion of self is complete, and hence 
needs no more attention. Very few, if any, are 



The Life oe Loye. 139 

justified in assuming that, for them, the painful 
process can be carried no further. 

Being less annoyed at the defects of others is 
one of the best proofs that we are approaching 
freedom from defects ourselves. 

To think about people lovingly is a necessary 
prelude to those little acts of kindness which, 
when scattered through the day, make it so bright 
and beautiful. We do not look ahead and plan 
enough about these things. 

"I know not what the future hath 
Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that life and death 
His mercy underlies. 

And so beside the Silent Sea 

I wait the muffled oar; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore. 

I know not where His islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air: 
I only know I can not drift 

Beyond His love and care." 

— Whittier. 



140 The Life of Love. 



"I am glad to think 
I am not bound to make the world go right, 

But only to discover and to do, 
With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints. 

I will trust in him 
That he can hold his own; and I will take 
His will above the work he sendeth me 
To be my chiefest good." 

—Jean Ingelow. 

"Forenoon and afternoon and night. Forenoon 
And afternoon and night. Forenoon, and— what! 
The empty song repeats itself. No more? 
Yes, that is Life: make this forenoon sublime, 
This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, 
And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won." 

— E. R. Sill. 

"In a service which Thy love appoints, 
There are no bonds for me, 
For my secret heart has learned the truth 

Which makes Thy children free, 
And a life of self-renouncing love 
Is a life of liberty." 

—Miss Waking. 

" There are in the loud-stunning tide 
Of human care and crime, 
With whom the melodies abide 

Of the everlasting chime, 
Who carry music in their heart 
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart; 
Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." 

— Keble. 



g idofl< 



FEB 8 1902 

1 COPY DEL. TO CAT. OIV. 
JFEB, 8 1902 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2005 

FreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



■ '.'■.'■• 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 053 306 9 






■mmm 



Sill 



IRK 

■P 



Hi 






